India enjoys extraordinary bipartisan support in USA: Foreign Secretary

NEW DELHI: Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla on Thursday emphasised that India continues to enjoy extraordinary bipartisan support in the USA notwithstanding a nail biting contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat hopeful Joe Biden to occupy the highest office in Washington.

“We still haven’t witnessed the endgame in the elections… it is a very close contest and I believe there is some more excitement before we get the final result. As far as India is concerned, we believe that our relationship with the United States has come a long way,” Shringla said referring to the state of the Indo-US ties close on the heels of the highly successful 2 + 2 dialogue that further strengthened strategic partnership.

Shringla, who was envoy to the US before being appointed the Foreign Secretary this January, emphasised that India continues to enjoy extraordinary bipartisan support and that “irrespective of the political dispensation in power in Washington or in New Delhi our relations with United States will continue to be strong and robust, even stronger and ever more robust as we go along”.


“Today we have a Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. The two countries cooperate across a wide range of issues starting from defence and security, technology and innovation, trade and investments and people-to-people contacts,” he added.

The 2 plus 2 dialogue among other issues witnessed signing of historic BECA that will elevate defence ties to the next level as the two countries sought to widen their Indo-Pacific partnership.

Earlier In an interview to DW News on Tuesday, the foreign secretary said while it is true that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump share a “special” relationship, Modi’s relationship with the former president was also “very special”.

He also reiterated that Biden has also “made it clear in many of his statements that he values a strong India-US strategic partnership”. “So that is common to both President Trump and (Vice) President Biden,” Shringla said.

The Foreign Secretary returned on Thursday from a three-nation Europe tour where he among other issues sought to build synergies between India’s Indo-Pacific strategies and respective Indo-Pacific strategies of France-Germany-UK.