Rise of India`s civilian power complements US efforts: Blake

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 16 (PTI) Ahead of President Barack
Obama's visit to India next month, a top US official has said
the rise of India's civilian power on the global stage will
complement its efforts at rationalising foreign policy and
emphasizing US civilian power overseas.
"The rise of India's civilian power on the global stage
will complement our own efforts at rationalising foreign
policy and emphasizing US civilian power overseas," Assistant
Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake
said.
"We will see India emerge as a global leader as it
occupies a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council from
2011-2013," Blake said in his speech to the Baltimore Council
on Foreign Affairs.
"We look forward to working with India on critical global
issues such as thwarting Iran's nuclear weapons programme,
fighting piracy in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, and
reinforcing human rights around the world," he said according
to the copy of the speech provided by the State Department.
"We won't agree on everything, but our common values will
ensure that our policies increasingly mirror each other,"
Blake said as he briefed the Baltimore-based think tank on the
increasing strategic relationship between India and the US.
"As two of the world's leading democracies, we can help
build a new global commons – an international system in which
other democracies can flourish, human dignity is advanced,
poverty is reduced, trade is expanded, our environment is
preserved, violent extremists are marginalised, the spread of
weapons of mass destruction is curbed, and new frontiers in
science and technology are explore.
That is the moment, and the promise, that lies before
us," Blake said.
"That is why President Obama hosted Prime Minister Singh
to the White House last year for the first State visit of his
Administration, when he called the US-India relationship one
of the defining partnerships of the 21st century," he said.
"As part of the effort to give more definition to the
partnership, President Obama and Secretary Clinton established
a Strategic Dialogue last year, which was convened for the
first time in June in Washington," he said
He further added that the purpose of the Dialogue is to
give senior-level strategic direction to the many working
groups and dialogues already in progress, and to conceive new
initiatives that will further propel the two countries towards
prosperity.
"The Dialogue already has cemented closer cooperation on
education, agriculture, clean energy, counter-terrorism, space
exploration, food assistance, and other activities.
In a few weeks, in early November, President Obama will
make a three-day visit to India that will mark another seminal
milestone in our bilateral relations," Blake said. PTI