US, India will work to advance free and open Indo-Pacific: WH

US, India will work to advance free and open Indo-Pacific: WH

Washington: The US will join hands with India to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific and continue to work together to deliver opportunity, security, freedom and dignity to its people, the White House has said, underlining that the two nations have ever-growing people-to-people connections.

White House Press Secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said that India and the United States are partners in many important areas, including defence, vaccines, climate and tech.

The two nations have ever-growing people-to-people connections, she told reporters on Tuesday at her daily news conference when asked in what way the US can assist India in making it a developed nation by 2047, or in the next 25 years.

Responding to a question, Jean-Pierre said the United States will continue to work together with India every day to deliver opportunity, security, freedom, and dignity to its people.

The United States will continue to work with India to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific and address the challenges both our countries face around the world. That is our commitment that we have in our partnership with India, she said, amid China flexing its muscles in the region.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. China claims sovereignty over all of the South China Sea.

Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims.

Beijing has also built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs it controls in the region. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources and are also vital to global trade.

The US, Japan, India and Australia had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

The US says the Quad is not an alliance but a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values and interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically-important Indo-Pacific region.

PTI

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