US lawmakers assure 'bipartisan support' for India ties in letter to Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar

In a major diplomatic victory for India, two top US lawmakers on Wednesday (August 5) said that Washington will always support its ties with India, adding that the strong ties between New Delhi and Washington assume significance in view of the "aggression" shown against India by China.

The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that both the US and India understand this fact that a strong US-India partnership will have an important influence in the 21st century.

"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in February of this year, our ties ''are no longer just another partnership. It is a far greater and closer relationship''", said the letter signed by Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Michael T McCaul, its Ranking Member.

Chairman @RepEliotEngel and Ranking Member @RepMcCaul express bipartisan support for the U.S.-India relationship while noting their concern that one year after the revocation of article 370, things have yet to normalize in Jammu and Kashmir.https://t.co/mTa0ReXS2b pic.twitter.com/lrYkTWkQo1 — House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) August 6, 2020

"This closer relationship is all the more important as India faces aggression from China along your shared border, which is part of the Chinese government's consistent pattern of unlawful and belligerent territorial aggression across the Indo-Pacific," remarked the two US Congressmen.

The letter tweeted by the House Foreign Affairs Committee asserted that the US will always support India's efforts to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"As champions of the US-India relationship, we have been delighted to see our countries'' close cooperation on issues from defense to climate change. It is because of our support for the bilateral relationship that we note with concern that conditions in Jammu and Kashmir have not normalised one year after India''s repeal of Article 370 and the establishment of Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory," wrote Engel and McCaul.