New Delhi:

Donald Lew, US Under Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said today that India and the United States are on their way to becoming one of the world’s most important trading partners. . Regarding Chinese aggression along the border with India, he said the United States had failed to see China acting in good faith.

Speaking to NTDV, he confirmed that Anthony John Blinken, the US Secretary of State, will visit India in March to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the Raisina Dialogue Multilateral Conference, hosted by the Indian policy think tank.

He added that India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval will visit the United States in two weeks to study important and new technologies.

On the US trade preference scheme, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), Low said the beneficiary situation for India was a “very big problem”. The GSP allows the import of thousands of products duty-free from destination countries.

He said, “The US Congress did not pass the GSP bill. But India and the United States are working to revamp India so that it meets all the criteria when Congress passes it.

Donald Lu pointed out that the United States had long been clear about its policy towards India and China – that border issues should be resolved bilaterally. But he noted that China has not taken any good faith action to resolve the issue.

“We have not seen China take any good faith action to resolve the border issue. On the contrary, with China’s aggressive moves, most recently in northeast India. In 2020, when the clash of the Galwan Valley happened, the United States was the first to criticize China’s aggression and support India. The United States will continue to support India.

In terms of sharing military technology, Lu said India was ready to buy 30 of the most advanced armed drones – the MQ9B – which the United States has not shared with many countries.

He also indicated that the United States would soon appoint a permanent ambassador to India. “Our system is very slow. It may take a long time to confirm the ambassador. But we hope that Eric Garcetti’s name will soon be cleared for the ambassador to India,” he said.

Regarding neighboring India, she said that with the Taliban’s new decree on women’s rights, the United States is concerned that aid will reach women in Afghanistan because they are no longer in the system. “Recent decisions taken by the Taliban regarding women could have far-reaching negative consequences for Afghan society,” he said.