State Rep. Niraj Antani – the state’s only Indian American elected official – said Wednesday he was impressed with the speech Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered in front of a joint session of Congress.
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He thanked Obama for extending his support to India’s membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG).
India has been reaching out to NSG member countries seeking support to its membership. Modi and President Barack Obama have been able to concretise the deal enabling, sooner than later, construction of the plants which will help meet the growing power needs of the country. “It’s the result of the diplomatic success of the Modi government that the country has achieved this feat in just two years, what we could not achieve in decades”, he said. Celebrating American war dead, though, was a telling signal of what both sides say is a very different relationship between the two countries.
India’s biggest concern from the 48-nation group comes from China, that argues that NSG members must be signatories to the Non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
President Enrique Peña Nieto elaborated on the structural reforms undertaken in Mexico to promote economic growth and development.
“We’re now standing shoulder-to-shoulder in ways that no one would have imagined a generation ago”, Rep. Eliot Engel of NY, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of the bilateral relationship.
The CPM said the agreement also made it clear that India’s interests in the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region had now been equated with the U.S. interests and the USA strategic objective of “containment of China”. “In 2007 we established Privileged Partnership.Today, during our conversations, President and I held productive discussions on the entire range of bilateral relations, and on global issues of mutual interests”, he said.
In their talks, Modi and Nieto explored ways to deepen bilateral cooperation in a number of key areas including in trade and investment, information technology, climate change and energy.
However, Switzerland had eariler in this week had given their consent on the bid of NSG made by India for membership.
“A strong India-US partnership can anchor peace, prosperity and stability from Asia to Africa and from Indian Ocean to the Pacific”, he declared.
This was the third meeting between the two leaders in the last two years and Mr. Modi said he had always found their conversations “deeply stimulating”.
Criticising Modi, the Congress said the prime minister spoke without keeping in mind the facts and the background.
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He was welcomed by the Indian community as he visited the city.
