Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: US Second Lady Usha Vance has said that this was a time of opportunity in the bilateral relationship with India and spoke effusively of her recent visit to India along with her husband, Vice-President JD Vance, and their three children for whom, she added, it was a “mindblowing” experience, reported IANS.
The Second Lady, who participated in a rare public interview at an event hosted by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum on June 2, spoke feelingly about the bond her three children forged with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a grandfather figure. “This is a time of great opportunity. And I think if my husband were here, he’d say the same thing,” she said when asked by the interviewer for her personal take on the bilateral relationship.
“Obviously, the US and India, their relationship has ebbed and flowed at times. There are times when one country’s needs and one country’s goals are different from the other. But right now, I think in the next four years and in the future, the fact that there is this established Indian-American population here and so many people in India who know the country and know the people who are here doing great things, having great opportunities,” said the Second Lady.
She added: “When we were visiting recently, I was just struck by the number of people who came up to me to say how much they loved our country, how they visited family, how they visited just for pleasure, that they were hoping for a close relationship. Looking forward, and I think these personal ties actually really have something to do with it.”
The Vances were in India in April for the first vice-presidential visit in 13 years, coming after Vice-President Joe Biden’s in 2013, when he was a part of the then President Barack Obama’s administration. The succeeding two Vice-Presidents – Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, who is also of Indian descent– never got around to make the trip.
