The United States and India are natural allies and the two countries need to take full potential of the relation by further expanding economic and military cooperation, former US Ambassador to India Richard Verma said Ambassador Richard Verma, while delivering the 3rd New India Lecture at Consulate General of India in New York on April 23, 2018. Ambassador Verma spoke on “US- India: Natural Allies-Absent the Alliance.”
Verma emphasized that there is need for an international system that reflects India’s role in the world today. He lamented that India is not on the UN Security Council, is not a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and doesn’t play the kind of role that it probably should on the G-20 bloc of nations or in other international Institutions.
“The US needs to pave the way forward for India so that it actually has the seat at the table in this century, a seat that is appropriate for a country of the size and stature of India. We have to be working very hard for that,” he said.
While commenting on Pakistan, the US has made it clear to Pakistani leaders that their “continuing support and facilitation” of terror groups along the border to create a “perpetual state of conflict” with India is “not sustainable”, former American Ambassador to India Richard Verma has said. He stressed that the US can’t lose the connections to all the people and moderate voices in Pakistan that want peace with India and a better future for their children.
During the course of the lecture, he walked the audience through the history, present and future of US-India relationship. Verma, who is currently the Vice Chairman and Partner of The Asia Group, said that both countries should engage each other amidst the “Make in India” and “America First” rhetoric.
P Vaidyanathan Iyer, a Edward Mason Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and a journalist with The Indian Express, moderated the lecture. Iyer said Verma was “brilliant in summing up 71 years of India-US ties in two minutes. A rapid fast forward till 2018!”
