New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Harsh V. Shringla Wednesday said there is going to be “some more excitement” before the final outcome of the tightly fought US Presidential elections is known, even as he noted that US-India relations have come a long way.
The 3 November US elections have not seen a concrete result yet as the two main contestants, President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate and former vice president Joe Biden, prepare to go to court.
“We still haven’t seen the endgame in the elections… Clearly it’s a very close contest and I think there’s some more excitement in store for us before we get the final result. As far as we are concerned, we do believe our relationship with the United States has come a long way,” Shringla said in the UK during a virtual event organised by the India Inc. Group.
The remark came as Trump said he will go to the Supreme Court and contest the results, while Biden said he is ready with his battery of lawyers.
Shringla, who was India’s Ambassador to the US before being appointed the Foreign Secretary, said India continues to enjoy “extraordinary” bipartisan support in the US even as he believes that “irrespective of the political dispensation in power in Washington or in New Delhi our relations with United States will continue to be strong and robust, even stronger and ever more robust as we go along”.
“Today we have what we call a Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. Our two countries cooperate across the board on a wide range of issues starting from defence and security, going into technology and innovation, trade and investments and people-to-people contacts. We have definitely crossed the tipping point in which the relations could be affected one way or the other,” he added.
Under Trump, the bilateral relationship between the US and India has taken a definitive strategic turn with both countries coming together in the shared vision of Indo-Pacific and the Quadrilateral Dialogue with Japan and Australia.
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‘Special relationship’
In an interview to DW News Tuesday, the foreign secretary said while it is true that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump share a “special” relationship, Modi’s relationship with the former president was also “very special”.
He also reiterated that Biden has also “made it clear in many of his statements that he values a strong India-US strategic partnership”. “So that is common to both President Trump and (former vice president) Biden,” Shringla said.
India and the US concluded their third round of 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on 27 October in New Delhi during which they signed a key defence pact.
Shringla also gave a speech at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London, where he said, “The rise of China and the imperative for a global rebalancing have added to the mix. A rules-based international order is achievable only with a rules-based Indo-Pacific.”
The UK was the last leg of Shringla’s weeklong visit to Europe that began on 29 October, with a trip to France and Germany.
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