Washington: US Secretary of State, John Kerry said on Tuesday that America's economic partnership with India is growing stronger with each passing day.


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“In today's era, foreign policy is economic policy and economic policy is foreign policy. Our economic partnership with India is growing stronger with each passing day,” Kerry said.


He added, “On security side, our collaboration with India is also growing. It will benefit both countries and its people. United States is one of India's largest defence suppliers,” as per ANI.


He said the US was not satisfied with the current level of bilateral trade at USD 100 billion and expressed confidence that it could be increased five-fold in the next few years, as per PTI.


India and the US today kicked off the first strategic and commercial dialogue with a focus on boosting trade ties and enhancing regional security ahead of PM Narendra Modi's meeting with President Barack Obama.


Kerry and External Affairs Minister ​Sushma Swaraj highlighted the priority areas in bilateral ties as they inaugurated the Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.


Swaraj said it was a very busy time for India and US relations.


"The impressive intensity, scale and level of achievements in our bilateral engagement since last year, is a testimony to the leadership, direct supervision and the tremendous importance attached to the bilateral relationship by our leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama," she said.


“The key pillars of our Strategic Partnership are shared values of democracy, freedom of speech and rule of law. The narrative and specifics of substantive agenda are shaped by increase in convergences of strategic interests and mutual concerns. One of the defining characteristics of our bilateral cooperative agenda has been purposeful action,” EAM added.


"The emerging context of the Indo-US political, strategic and security, and economic ties continues to be constantly shaped by international geo-politics, the strength of the Indian economy amidst global economic uncertainties and the need for partnership among democracies to respond to some of the global challenges like terrorism," she further said.


She also listed the areas of cooperation between India and US, namely, defence, security, civil nuclear cooperation, S&T, health, space, energy, health, trade and Investment.


“We firmly believe that an economically prosperous India offers a long term opportunity to US industry and capital,” Swaraj said.


Swaraj said the narrative and specifics of substantive cooperative agenda were shaped by increasing convergence of strategic interests and mutual concerns, including in the Indian Ocean Region and the Asia-Pacific.








(With Agency inputs)