U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to address a U.S.-India summit organised by advocacy organisation, the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). The summit, “US-India Week: Navigating New Challenges,” will be held (virtually) from August 31 to September 3.
Speakers will include External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the U.S.’s Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster.
USISPF President Mukesh Aghi called Mr. Pence’s participation an “exceptional instance of the deepening commitment of the administration towards India and the Indo-Pacific region”.
The bilateral relationship has, in general, enjoyed broad bipartisan support in the U.S. There are challenges in the relationship from both parties, however. Trade issues (including a mini-trade deal that is yet to be concluded) and U.S. President’s transactional approach to the relationship is a case in point. Congressional Republicans and Democrats, but mostly Democrats, have also scrutinised India’s actions in Kashmir since August 2019 (the abrogation of Article 370), the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“At a time of tremendous geo-economic and geo-political disruption, a lot is riding on the success and vitality of the US-India bilateral relationship,” Mr. Aghi said. Future areas of potentially deeper U.S.-India collaboration, which are expected to be discussed at the conference, include biosecurity, 5G, artificial intelligence and start-ups, as per Mr. Aghi.
The summit will also discuss trade and investment, energy ties; India’s and global supply chains, collaboration in fintech and healthcare.
