Tuesday 1 November 2011
US says India will grow in strategic
"A strong bilateral partnership is in US interests and benefits both countries," said the report prepared in response to a request from the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee on a five-year action plan to strengthen bilateral defense relations.
"We expect India's importance to US interests to grow in the long run as India, a major regional and emerging global power, increasingly assumes roles commensurate with its position as a stakeholder and a leader in the international system," it said.
Over the next five years, the US will continue to build the support structures necessary to ensure the maturation of a robust and mutually beneficial defense relationship with India in the Asia-Pacific and globally, the report said. The US defense department, it said, "will advance the defense relationship by deepening people-to-people ties through continued military-to-military engagements, implementing agreed upon cooperation and pursuing new avenues of collaboration with particular emphasis on maritime security and counter terrorism activities, and expanding defense trade and armaments cooperation.
On the counter terrorism front, the United States continues to focus on Al Qaeda and other terrorist threats that emanate from South Asia, it said noting for some of these groups, particularly Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT), blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, India remains the primary target.
As "LeT's activities continue to threaten US interests and South Asian regional stability," the US "will continue to follow the guidance of our National Strategy for Counter terrorism which calls for joining with key partners, like India, to share the burdens of our common security goals."
"We expect India's importance to US interests to grow in the long run as India, a major regional and emerging global power, increasingly assumes roles commensurate with its position as a stakeholder and a leader in the international system," it said.
Over the next five years, the US will continue to build the support structures necessary to ensure the maturation of a robust and mutually beneficial defense relationship with India in the Asia-Pacific and globally, the report said. The US defense department, it said, "will advance the defense relationship by deepening people-to-people ties through continued military-to-military engagements, implementing agreed upon cooperation and pursuing new avenues of collaboration with particular emphasis on maritime security and counter terrorism activities, and expanding defense trade and armaments cooperation.
On the counter terrorism front, the United States continues to focus on Al Qaeda and other terrorist threats that emanate from South Asia, it said noting for some of these groups, particularly Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taeba (LeT), blamed for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, India remains the primary target.
As "LeT's activities continue to threaten US interests and South Asian regional stability," the US "will continue to follow the guidance of our National Strategy for Counter terrorism which calls for joining with key partners, like India, to share the burdens of our common security goals."
