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

Washington DC: The US has extended greetings to India on 75 years of its independence and said the two countries will work to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific and address the challenges they face around the world.

“We congratulate the people of India on 75 years of independence,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a press conference here while responding to a question on Tuesday.

“As the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy, respectively, we will continue to work together every day to deliver opportunities, security, freedom, and dignity to our peoples,” she said, noting that this year, the US and India are celebrating 75 years of their diplomatic relationship.

She underlined that the two countries are partners in many important areas, including defense, vaccines, climate, tech, and our ever-growing people-to-people connections.

“The US 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,” she said, amid China flexing muscles in the region.

Earlier, 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 behavior in the Indo-Pacific 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 counterclaims. Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil, and other natural resources and are also vital to global trade.

Image courtesy of (Image Courtesy: US Embassy India)

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