Washington, June 30 (IANS) President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser says the United States would continue to invest heavily in its ties with India, seen as one of Washington’s most important relationships over the next generation.
‘I don’t think there’s any question but that the relationship with India is going to be one of the most important relationships for the United States over the next generation,’ National Economic Council Director Lawrence H. Summers said Tuesday.
‘And that’s why we have invested heavily in that relationship and certainly, as President Obama’s intention to continue investing in that relationship,’ he said in an address on technological opportunities, job creation and economic growth.
Asked what role India would play with the United States in the global economy after the Toronto summit of Group of 20 leading economies, Summers said: ‘If you say the words information technology, democracy, English language, modernising and renewing economy, …you realise how much the United States and India have in common.
‘You realise that a generation from now they will be two of the three largest economies in the world. And I think we have an enormous stake in our relationship,’ he said.
‘My hope it will be one of a deepening flow of everything: A deepening flow of telecommunications, a deepening flow of student exchanges, a deepening flow of tourism, a deepening flow of foreign investment, a deepening flow of international trade, a deepening flow of diplomatic contact that discussed the architecture of evolving global system.’
Talking about Obama’s initiative to open up wireless spectrum, Summers noted ‘Many other countries have less encumbered spectrum than the United States and continue to move aggressively in the wireless arena.’
‘China and India and mobile phone companies are gaining between 8- and 10-million subscribers per month.’
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
