‘US-India relationship has never been stronger’: Vice President Mike Pence

US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday said a strong US-India partnership is in their interests and reaffirmed America’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.  Pence, speaking at a virtual event on the US-India organised by the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), a non-profit organisation, said that America’s strength first comes from its military and economy, but also from its relationships with other countries.

“There’s no question that the relationship that has been forged over the years, and then under President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never been stronger,” he said. Speaking at the India-US week’, Pence said America will strengthen the hands of those who want to see a future of freedom in the Indo Pacific, and a future of freedom cross Asia.

The Vice President’s statement comes amid heightened tensions between China and India amid a border standoff in eastern Ladakh. The Chinese military has been flexing its muscles in the Indo-Pacific region. It is also engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea (SCS) and the East China Sea (ECS).

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it.

Beijing has built up and militarised many of the islands and reefs which it controls in the region.

Pence said America wants a good relationship with every country in the world, including China and President Donald Trump has a good relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “…but we going to continue to stand firm with our allies, including India, in that region (Indo-Pacific)… we want to strengthen all our ties with India,” Pence added.

The US is at loggerheads with China over trade and industrial practices for months. The two countries are also at odds over China’s decision to impose a controversial security law in Hong Kong, and the origin of coronavirus, which the US claims emerged from a bio-lab in Wuhan.

Pence, in response to a question, said that he truly believes that the relationship between the US and India, because much of the work that the corporate sector has done, and the work of President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, has never been stronger.

“But I really do believe that all of us continue to build the ties that bind on the foundation which we built this relationship, the best is yet to come, for the US India relationship in the years ahead,” Pence said.