India-US must work together to confront global challenges: PM

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Nov 24 (PTI) Noting that there was growing
"convergence" in national interests of India and the US,
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said the two
countries "must work together" to effectively tackle the
multiple challenges confronting the world.
"The India-US partnership can promote global cooperation
in dealing with issues that the world has to face together,
whether it is hunger, global security and terrorism, nuclear
disarmament, climate change or spread of pandemics," he said.
Singh said he saw the future of the India-US partnership
with "confidence and optimism".
"There is a growing convergence in our national
interests, both within bilateral framework and on regional and
global issues," the Prime Minister said in his address to the
Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank.
The changes in global economic and political structures
and the growing interdependence among nations today offer the
two countries an opportunity to look beyond bilateral
engagement "to establish a strategic partnership of global
dimensions," he said in the presence of city's top
intellectuals.
"If we are to effectively tackle the multiple challenges
that confront the world, India and the United States, as two
leading democracies, must work together," he asserted, adding
the immediate challenge before the two countries is to bring
the world to full recovery from global economic crisis.
The Prime Minister noted that India and the US have
strong compulsions to work towards an open and liberal regime
for transfers of goods, services, investments and technology.
This will stimulate recovery in the global economy,
create jobs and spur growth in their economies, he said.
Singh said India and the US can work together with other
countries in the region to create an open and inclusive
regional architecture in the Asia-Pacific.
"The India-US partnership can contribute to an orderly
transition to the new order and be an important factor for
global peace and stability," he said.
Both India and the US, Singh said draw strength from
their common values of respect for cultural diversity,
democracy, freedom of expression and the rule of law.
"Our two nations have been shaped by the thoughts and
ideals of two apostles of peace of the 20th century, Mahatma
Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. We should
advance these ideals as fundamental rights of all people," the
Prime Minister said. PTI LKJ
ANU