Nisha Desai Biswal, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs. PHOTO: REUTERS
NEW DELHI: The first senior US official to visit India since a damaging diplomatic row said Thursday the two countries should focus on "talk and trade" as they look to get their partnership back on track.
In December, a female Indian consulate official was arrested and strip-searched in New York on suspicion of visa fraud, enraging Indian authorities who said she had diplomatic immunity.
The incident fuelled a bitter row between the world's two largest democracies, which have overcome Cold War suspicions to embrace each other as trading partners and strategic allies in recent years.
Nisha Desai Biswal, the US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, acknowledged problems in a speech in the Indian capital on Thursday but urged both sides to overcome their differences.
"We're addressing these concerns head-on as good partners do," she said, adding: "The solution is to talk and trade."
Red tape, a lack of transparency in tax law and weak protection of intellectual property are discouraging investment in India, Biswal said as she listed a series of US concerns.
She also highlighted that India has ranked a dismal 134 out of 189 countries in world rankings for hospitable places to "invest and start a new business".
Annual trade between India and the US currently stands at a $100 billion but the two sides have pledged to increase this figure five-fold over the next decade.
While highlighting India's strategic importance, Biswal said the US was eager for better relations between the South Asian giant and its neighbours to the west - Pakistan and Afghanistan - and central and southeastern Asia.
"In the coming years, the most important step India can take to promote greater connectivity is to normalise trade with Pakistan," she said.
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@Rafi Ka Deewana:
Really? The main issue from the US side is that India constantly demands superpower respect, but doesn't reciprocate (vis-a-vis Iran especially). This has even been stated by diplomats in various news articles. The US is annoyed with Indian arrogance, and vice-versa. The US also was quite unhappy with India's incredibly overblown and childish response to the Khobragade incident. Read any US paper reporting the incident - they almost mock Indians for neglecting the fact that she underpaid her staff. The Americans did not look kindly on India removing security barricades near the US embassy either - that was something that actually put the US mission in jeopardy. This was especially sensitive given the Benghazi incident.
The US and India have a possibly bright future. But India needs to first realize it is not yet a superpower. A poor country demanding equal footing with the most powerful nation in the world is not a recipe for success. This is 2014, not 2114. India needs to realize her true stature regarding the US.
Doesn't matter how much they fight, they both need each other.
The good thing is, the relationship is not based on bending over backwards for either country. India stands up for what it thinks is right and so does the US. This makes it a true friendship - where one respects the other's feelings.