Washington D.C., Mar 5:
The relationship between the world’s two largest democracies, which have made significant progress in the last 20 years, now can be as ambitious as “we choose to be,” a top Indian diplomat has said.
“When I look at the broader relationship, the India US strategic partnership, I think we have now reached a stage where we can say that the partnership has come into its own. We have achieved a lot over the past 70 years. But what we have achieved over the past 20 years has been at a different level altogether. And I would say that now we are at a stage where we can be as ambitious as we choose to be,” said India’s Deputy Ambassador to the US, Sripriya Ranganathan.
The top Indian diplomat was speaking at the Stanford India Dialogue, the Leaders of Tomorrow Conference, organized by Stanford India Policy and Economics Club (SIPEC), in partnership with the Motwani Jadeja Foundation.
“We can decide to set our goals, set our sights on targets that were unimaginable a few years ago, and we can. Not only can we be ambitious, but we can also be confident that we can make these things work, we can bring to implementation ideas that would’ve seemed outlandish even 20 years ago,” Ranganathan said at the conference.
Standford Professor at its School of Medicine Dr Anurag Mairal, who has been instrumental in the conference, said this is the first India conference on the west coast of this size. The US-India partnership is going to be the most defining partnership of its kind for the next three decades, he said.
Citing the example of India-US relationship in the field of space and the area of emerging and critical technologies, Ranganathan said scientists and policy from both the countries are actively engaged because “we see these as being the frontiers of the future and what will allow us to gain the leadership role in the shape of the global economy” in the next few decades.
“We have reached the stage where we have been able to say to each other the let’s work together so that we are able to shape this world together, so that we are able to discover where the areas of overlap are, where are the areas of complementarity so that together we are able to make a difference. I think if we look back after about 10 years, we will find that there are at least 10 to 15 interesting, important and profound projects that India and the US have been able to work on and concretize so that we are able to make this fantastic platform of our collaboration,” Ranganathan said.
The top Indian diplomat urged the students, in particular those from India and of Indian origin, of Stanford to stay connected with India. “I would urge you to maintain your connections with India and bring some of these learnings also back to India so that we are able to also benefit from the knowledge that you’re picking up over here,” she said.
