Team Blitz India
A top US official said that progress in the bilateral relationship with India has finally achieved “escape velocity”, using a term from space exploration to describe the velocity required by a body to soar without the pull of gravity. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell was speaking on a sustainable and enduring US policy in the Indo-Pacific region at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations, a leading think tank.
Much anticipated visit
He was recently in India along with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for a much-anticipated visit that also turned out to be the first trip by senior US officials to New Delhi in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term.
Intake of Indian students
Campbell also made a strong pitch for according a higher preference to increasing the intake of Indian students in STEM fields in US universities, than to students from China, who are not trusted in high-technology fields. “The United States and India have launched an effort to intensify defence industrial cooperation on jet engines and armoured vehicles,” Campbell said about ties with India in the context of America’s sustained engagement with the IndoPacific region.
“After working in India for decades, I can tell you that it is my view that finally, the use-end rate relationship has reached escape velocity. I think we have a partnership that can be sustained and there is ambition in both Delhi and Washington to take important next steps. We’ve worked together on a variety of other issues between the United States and India, including announcing new initiatives where we will work together for the first time in the Indian Ocean.”
Campbell was previously the White House czar for President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy, which has seen this administration elevate the Quad platform with India, Australia, and Japan to the level leaders, the launch of the Australia, UK and US partnership called AUKUS and deepening bilateral, trilateral and multilateral ties with IndoPacific countries with the shared goal of managing China’s aggressive rise.
Jet engine project
The jet engine cooperation that Campbell mentioned is the joint production of GE’s F414 jet engine with HAL that was announced during Prime Minister Modi’s state visit in June last year.