India's outgoing ambassador to the US Arun Singh is confident of India-US relations deepening.
India's ties with the United States have evolved into a very deep partnership, which is more than what is generally acknowledged, India's outgoing ambassador to the United States Arun Singh has said.
In many ways there is a very deep partnership, more than what is generally acknowledged and recognised," said Mr Singh who retired yesterday.
Pointing out that there is now a broad bi-partisan support for deeper engagement between the world's largest democracy and the United States, Mr Singh said the relationship will only grow irrespective of the outcome of the next US elections in 2017.
"When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was here in June, he had come here at the invitation of President Barack Obama, but Speaker Paul Ryan, who is a Republican, invited him to address a joint session of the Congress which, as anybody could see, went off very well," Mr Singh said.
"I am confident that whoever is the next president and people around them would work to advance this relationship," he added.
Mr Singh was appointed as India's ambassador the United States of America in 2015 and oversaw period of increasing cooperation between the two countries. In a career spanning 37 years, Mr Singh served in various key positions in the Ministry of External Affairs, and was India's ambassador to Israel and France before his last appointment in Washington.
"There is tremendous potential going ahead. We see similarity of values, whether we are looking democracy, human rights. So with all that there is a sense in both countries that this is a relationship from which we both benefit," Mr Singh said.
According to Mr Singh emerging and existing global challenges can only be tackled effectively when the world's two leading democracies work together.
"This is a relationship which is important in today's global context where you see a lot of uncertainty, both economic, political; where you see terrorism; where you see approaches based on exclusion rather than multiculturalism and pluralism," he said.
"So there is a lot of value in this relationship. So therefore as a diplomat between 2008 and 2013 and since last year it has been fascinating being part of this process," Mr Singh added.