India, US “destined” to be strong partners, says Rajnath Singh

Lauding the progress in India-US ties, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the Indian diaspora that New Delhi and Washington are “destined” to be strong partners.

Rajnath Singh is on an official visit to the US from August 23 to 26 at the invitation of the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin. He arrived in Washington, on Thursday

“India and the US are natural allies, we have old ties. Even destiny wants India-US relations to be strong,” he said addressing the Indian community in Washington on Thursday.

“When Columbus went on the expedition to discover America, he met the native Americans…so I believe, from the start, destiny wants India-US ties to be strong. And, our ties are continuously strengthening. Only India and the US coming together can bring peace, prosperity and stability to the world,” he added.

The Defence Minister further elaborated on India’s economic progress in the last 10 years, emphasising that India has brought 25 crore people out of poverty and is poised to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027.

“Earlier, the Indian economy was among the ‘Fragile 5’, today it is among ‘Stimulus 5’. Morgan Stanley has said that no one can stop India from being in the world’s top 3 economies by 2027…India is one of the fastest-growing major economies,” Singh said.

He further said that India combated the challenge of the Covid pandemic very efficiently and didn’t let it impact the Indian economy.

“During the Covid pandemic, our Prime Minister combated the crisis with such strength…we didn’t allow any adverse impact of the pandemic to hit our economy….in the last 10 years, our government has lifted 25 crore people out of the poverty line…our target is no one remains poor in the country in the next few years,” he said.

“For Ease of Doing Business, our government removed 40,000 compliances in businesses…the number of start-ups was around 400-500 when our government, today it has crossed 1,20,000. We are world’s second-largest mobile phone exporter. We are number one in digital transactions. India accounts for over 46 per cent of digital transactions globally,” the Defence Minister added.

During the visit, the Defence Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart Secretary Austin. He will also meet the US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan.

The visit comes in the backdrop of the growing momentum in India-US relations and defence engagements at multiple levels. The visit is expected to further deepen and broaden the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, the Ministry of Defence stated.