Pentagon for India taking up larger role on world stage

Washington, Nov 3 (PTI) The United States sees India, an emerging global and regional power, taking a larger role upon the world stage, a top Pentagon official said. "In terms of the role of India in the world, we're very pleased. We really see India taking a larger role upon the world stage and understanding that they have a role as an emerging power and as a realised power and that they have a responsibility to be a part of the global community," the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia, Robert Scher, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference Wednesday. "I think you see it in the UN. You see it in the G-20. And this is a lot of the strategic partnership that (US) President (Barack) Obama and Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh have talked about (and) is (sic) working together to address regional and global issues," Scher said in response to a question at the rare Pentagon news conference on India. "Certainly out of the field of defence, but if you look at cooperation in Africa, where we are cooperating to deal with some development issues, if you look at peacekeeping operations and the tremendous commitment that India has made to international peacekeeping operations, you can't but be impressed and see that this is a constructive role that they're playing," he said. "I think the potential for this is also quite great. And this is where we look forward to doing some of our best work together in solving problems that confront the region and the globe," Scher said. Scher said US-India relationship is a priority for the Obama Administration and for Department of Defence, because they believe that a strong bilateral partnership is in the United States' interests and benefits both of the countries. "In the past decade, there has been a rapid transformation in the US-India defence relationship. What was once a nascent relationship between unfamiliar nations has evolved into a real partnership between two of the pre-eminent powers in Asia," he said. "Today, US-India defence ties are strong and growing. Our military-to-military engagement has increased steadily over the past 10 years, and now includes a robust slate of dialogues, military exercises, defence trade, personnel exchanges and armaments cooperation," he said. The US believes that its engagement with India will help as India takes on a greater leadership role in South Asia, the Indian Ocean region and globally, on a range of issues. "But I'll say that efforts to put this relationship within a specific category inevitably fall short. This is a unique relationship. We seek a partnership of equals, where India is enmeshed in the world as a key actor, and in regional security architectures, where we can and we do work together on shared interests," he said. "We will continue to focus on relationship building and establishing the foundation for this long-term partnership. We view India and the development of our strategic and security relationship as instrumental to our long-term vision for the region," he said. Pentagon held the news conference, a day after it submitted a report to the Congress on its relationship with India and the way forward for the next five years. "This report gives us a chance to showcase a relationship that we believe is very important to US interests and a relationship that we're very proud of. " We took this report as an opportunity to reflect on the positive trajectory of defence relations, which has led us to the strong state of US-India security cooperation today. "It is meant to be a straightforward, factual report about what we are currently doing and where we continue to cooperate together," he said. "Over the past year, we've been working closely with our partners in the legislative branch to raise awareness about the importance of the US-India defence relations. The legislative branch has played an important role, and it continues to have an important role to play in advancing US-India relations," he said, adding that US-India relationship enjoys a bipartisan support. He said the long-term partnership with India was an issue that clearly transcended party lines and administrations. "As we think about future US security interests and posture in Asia, there is broad consensus that this is a key relationship," he said. "The US-India defence relationship is strong, and it continues to grow in meaningful ways that support the security interests of both countries. The United States is committed to this defence relationship with India," Scher added. PTI