US views India as strong partner, says US official

Indo-US N-deal helped strengthening relations between two

Delivering a talk on ‘Current Indo-US relations: Changes for co-operation and engagement’ here at Manipal University building on Thursday, he said that a sea change in the relationship was brought in during the tenure of the Bush Junior, which gained momentum and finally culminated in the Indo-US nuclear deal that helped both the countries to move forward. “Obama administration wishes to go beyond the friendly ties that benefits both the countries. Indo-US stories no more seem to create misconceptions. It has very few negative things right now and is moving in a positive direction. Post 26/11, India and US are facing similar threats. Working together is beneficial. In the recent times, most powerful people of US bureaucracy including FBI Director and Secretary of State visited India. This enabled sharing of intelligence cooperation,” he said.

US views India as the strong partner to solve inter related problems connected with energy and climatic changes. Developing the clean energy is the need of the hour. Working on solar, wind and hydra power rather than fossil fuels would yield more benefits for India, he said.

Stating that agriculture is delicate issue, Woodard said 60 per cent of Indian population is dependent on agriculture in contrast to less than 2 per cent in US.

Retorting to a query, Woodard said there is an action programme to observe the happenings in Pakistan. “India and Pakistan need to be treated as individual and only then, the US can hope to achieve what it wants. Right now Pakistan is a difficult challenge, a misguided and mysterious world. US knows that India has no designs on Pakistan even though India is a stronger military force,” he said.

Manipal University Vice Chancellor Dr Ramdass Pai, UNESCO Peace Chair and Head Department of Geo Politics, Prof M O Nalapat, MIC Honorary Director Dr M V Kamath, Registrar International Affairs Dr Vinodh Bhat and others were present.