“This not additive relationship”: Eric Garcetti on US, India ties

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India]: US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti on Tuesday highlighted the relationship with India and said that it was not based on convenience and calculation, adding that the ties were “multiplicative.” 

“There is a great awakening happening between India and the US. This is not an additive relationship — India plus the US. It is a multiplicative relationship. When India and the US are together, it is India times the US,” Garcetti said while speaking on India-US relations at the USC-India Innovation Summit on Tuesday. 

He said that the foundation of the bilateral ties is built on four Ps — peace, prosperity, planet and people. 

“Whether it was our dual diplomacy in G20, whether it’s the work that we’re doing in the health sphere, whether it’s the way that we can look at trying to build peace into the world. The four P’s, as I call them, which is the cornerstone of our vision here as America in India through the mission here of peace, prosperity, planet and people,” said the US envoy. 

Garcetti said that he took up the ambassador role as US President Joe Biden told him that India was the most important country for him. 
The US Ambassador said: “There is a great awakening happening between the United States and India. When the president asked me to consider this job, he said, it’s the most important country in the world to me now. He really feels that. And I believe that too, or else I wouldn’t have taken this job.” 

He said that the US and India are on the same page, “collaborating together, the two largest democracies in the world, with proud histories, who know increasingly that our relationship hasn’t been based on convenience or calculation. It has been based on deep and lasting friendship, probably best embodied by the relationship that USC has with India and Indians.” 

Eric Garcetti recently stressed that the US and India, being the two greatest democracies, can show the world what it means to be moral leaders at a needed moment. 

“There are dictatorships in the world and there are democracies. The US and India, as the two greatest democracies, can show the world what it means to be moral leaders at a moment we need it,” he said at the USC-India Innovation Summit on Tuesday. 

He further emphasised that this was the best year in India-US history. 

“This was the best year in US-India history, and it is not a new peak; I would say it is the new foundation…,” he added. 
The US envoy said that India is now generating breakthroughs in various sectors including health, technology and finance.