Welcoming India’s “Look East policy”, a top White House official has said that the Obama Administration wants New Delhi to play a significant role in the Asia Pacific region.
“The President very much welcomes India’s Look East approach. We believe that just as the United States, as a Pacific Ocean power, is going to be deeply engaged in the future of East Asia, so should India as an Indian Ocean power and as an Asian nation,” the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication, Mr Ben Rhodes, said.
“So one of the reasons, for instance, that we believe the East Asia Summit should be the principal strategic forum in the region is because it brings India into the equation as well as United States, as well as Russia, so that in addition to having the East Asian nations, Asean nations, that we believe it’s very important to have both India, the United States, also Russia at the table for those discussions,” he said.
Mr Rhodes was responding to questions from foreign journalists at the Washington Foreign Press center at a special briefing on the recent Asia visit of the US President, Mr Barack Obama.
At Bali in Indonesia, Mr Obama met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the first after the last November’s India visit.
“In the bilateral meeting that the President had with Prime Minister Singh, they were able to discuss a range of bilateral issues, but they also discussed, again, their commitment to the region, some of the shared principles that we have on issues like maritime security and non-proliferation and disaster relief, which were our top agenda items,” Mr Rhodes said.