Biden promises to strengthen India ties, combat terrorism
WASHINGTON: Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for the US President’s post, has said that while for President Donald Trump Us-india ties were “photo-ops”, for him they were about “getting things done”, and reiterated his promise to work with India to combat terrorism and prevent China from threatening its neighbours.
To illustrate the contrast, Biden recalled, in an Op-ed in India West, a news publication focused on the diaspora, the role he played in the passage of the “historic” India-us civil nuclear deal as chairman of the US senate foreign relations committee in 2008. “At the time, I said if the US and India became closer friends, then the world will be a safer place,” Biden wrote.
President Barack Obama’s tenure — 2009 to 2016 — saw “some of the best years” between the two countries, Biden wrote further, and added that he, with Kamala Harris, his Indian-descent running mate, will “build on that great progress and do even more”. “We can and should be natural allies,” the former vice-president, who currently has the upper hand in the race against Trump, wrote, using a phrase first used by late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee during a trip to the US in 1998. Biden reiterated his promise — first laid out in an expansive platform he unveiled on August 15 at a virtual event to mark India’s Independence Day — to work with India on its key foreign policy concerns. “If elected President, I will continue what I have long called for: The US and India will stand together against terrorism and work together to promote a region of peace and stability where neither China nor any other country threatens its neighbours.”
“The Indian American electorate of nearly 2 million voters is a powerful force that can make all the difference from North Carolina and Virginia to Pennsylvania and Michigan to Georgia and Texas and across the country,” he wrote leaving no doubt the Op-ed was an appeal to Indian American voters.