Biden and PM Modi hailed a new era in US-India relationship in June this year. (File image: PTI)
The United States will continue to foster a stronger defence partnership with India, the Pentagon said on Friday. Addressing a Pentagon Press Secretary here, Pat Ryder told reporters that Washington appreciates its ties with New Delhi on the “defence level.”
“We very much appreciate our relationship with India on a defence level. We continue to foster a stronger defence partnership with India and that is something that I think you’ll continue to see us do going forward,” Ryder said.
In 1997, defence trade between India and the US was almost negligible, today it stands above USD 20 billion. Responding to a question, Ryder said China remains the pacing challenge for the Department of Defense.
“We do appreciate the partnership that we have with India and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region when it comes to preserving individual nations’ sovereignty and abiding by the international rules-based order that has preserved peace and stability for many years,” he said.
These remarks come as US and India have significantly enhanced defence cooperation in recent years. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit in June, India inked a number of defence deals with the United States.
Narendra Modi is the 6th Indian PM to address US Congress. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, numerous Indian PM’s have done so in the past, some to roaring applause & cheers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the joint session of the US Congress at the US Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA on 23 June | Photo: ANI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday addressed the joint session of the US Congress. During his approximately one-hour-long speech, in which he referred to the partnership between India and the US as the “defining partnership of this century”, PM Modi received 53 rounds of applause and a record 15 standing ovations.
Speaking of Indo-US partnerships in technology and defence, PM’s speech emphasised on the growing relationship between the two countries, while also hinting at China’s threat in the Indo-Pacific.
PM Modi now figures on a small list of leaders to have addressed the US Congress more than once. Others include renowned figures like Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela. He is also the sixth Indian prime minister to be given this platform.
He first addressed the US Congress in 2016 under the Barack Obama administration. Roughly 48 minutes, his speech then had received nine standing ovations and 33 rounds of applause, show media reports. Back then, he had highlighted how the two countries had overcome “hesitations of history” and a strong relationship between the two could “anchor peace”.
Before Modi, former PM Manmohan Singh, too, had received applause and cheers from US senators and congressmen 32 times during a 40-minute speech given in 2005, roughly a day after the two countries had signed the ‘India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement’. On the agreement, which had ended a 34-year ban on nuclear trade with India, PM Singh had reportedly said: “Today, our relationship has overcome the hesitations of history. Comfort, candour and convergence define our conversations…. And, in this exciting journey, the US Congress has acted as its compass. You helped us turn barriers into bridges of partnership.”
Uttar Pradesh Election Results 2022: Hailing BJP’s emphatic victory in the four states of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that these results have set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Addressing BJP workers at the party office in New Delhi, PM Modi also gave a big shout out to the karyakartas, saying that they kept their “early Holi promise”. He further said that the assembly results “strongly vindicate BJP’s pro-poor and pro-active governance”. “BJP understands that good governance and delivery of schemes is very important, and we work to ensure the same,” he said.
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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who seems set to form the second consecutive government in Uttar Pradesh, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the decisive BJP mandate not just in UP, but also in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. CM Adityanath further said that the BJP victory is a victory of PM Modi’s policies.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav emerged victorious from Karhal seat, which falls in SP bastion Mainpuri.
Sources told News18 that the CM is likely to leave for Delhi late in the evening or early on Friday morning to meet the BJP top brass, including PM Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party chief JP Nadda. Sources further said that Shah is expected to arrive at the BJP office at around 6 pm.
CM Yogi had earlier expressed confidence of winning over 300 seats, even as opposition’s tried hard to latch onto the farmers protest and highlight the Jat anger in the western belt. But BJP has trumped all. Both Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress, once key players in the state, have been reduced to single digits. Tying up with smaller parties seem to have gone wrong for Akhilesh Yadav as the party is struggling to even cross 150 seats. However, the SP has managed to finish second.
Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state that sends maximum number of members to Parliament. With over 15 crore voters, Uttar Pradesh accounts for 80 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats, and a 403-member Assembly, thus making it India’s most politically significant state amid the election results today. UP, since January 25, 1950 when the United Provinces was renamed as Uttar Pradesh, has given India a legion of stalwarts, chief ministers, and prime ministers through its 17 Assembly elections. Not to forget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was once Gujarat’s chief minister, also chose Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi as his Lok Sabha constituency.
