'India matters significantly to President Biden and to this administration, and not just in South Asia or the Indo-Pacific region, but truly globally.'
National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications (NSCCSC) John Kirby on Tuesday told a press conference in Washington, DC: "India will be a critical strategic partner for the United States in the coming decades."
United States President Joe Biden is all set to visit India and is 'very excited' about the important initiatives he will be championing at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, according to senior White House officials.
The US hopes India will "reconsider" its decision to ban wheat exports, with Washington "encouraging" countries not to restrict exports as that will exacerbate food shortages, amidst Russia's invasion of Ukraine. India, the world's second-biggest wheat producer, has banned wheat exports in a bid to check high domestic prices amid concerns of wheat output being hit by scorching heat waves. The decision would help control retail prices of wheat and wheat flour, which have risen by an average 14-20 per cent in the last one year, besides meeting the foodgrain requirement of neighbouring and vulnerable countries.
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator, United States Agency for International Development, who accompanied President Barack Obama to India, said his agency's developmental relationship with India has evolved into a peer to peer partnership unlike in the past when India was simply an aid recipient.
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and the highest ranking Indian American in the Obama administration, who accompanied US President Barack Obama to India said that today his agency's developmental relationship with India has evolved into a peer to peer partnership unlike in the past when India was simply an aid recipient.
Blake said, "What this visit will be remembered for is that it will mark really the first time that we have really embarked on serious, specific, global strategic cooperation in areas like open government, in areas like agriculture, or in women's empowerment, or in working together in Africa, working together in Afghanistan."
Special United States Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, who was once speculated to be US President Obama's trouble-shooter to Kashmir, is so sensitive to creating an uproar in New Delhi if he speaks about Kashmir, that he doesn't even want to say the 'K word.'
In an interaction with journalists at the Foreign Press Center inWashington, Lewis, who marched with King in Selma, Alabama in the '60s said, "As I said there in India as we traveled, if it hadn't been for Gandhi, hadn't been for Martin Luther King Jr, there would be no Barack Obama."
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated on Tuesday that the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons is not under any threat in spite of the current political crisis in that country. Mullen added that President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency didn't have any significant impact on the US-led global war on terror in Afghanistan.
US Commerce Secretary Carlos M Gutierrez,who travels to New Delhi, Feb. 13-14 to meet Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath,
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances