US-India partnership holds "immense potential": US envoy Garcetti

NEW DELHI: Thanking External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for a "gracious welcome", US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti noted that the US-India partnership offers a lot of promise.

Following his meeting with EAM Jaishankar in New Delhi, Garcetti expressed that he was thrilled to be here and to witness the strong bond between India and the US.

"Thank you, @drsjaishankar, for the gracious welcome! As the US Ambassador to India, I am thrilled to be here and witness the strong bond between our nations. The #USIndia partnership holds immense potential, and I am committed to further strengthening our ties," Garcetti tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Garcetti and Jaishankar met to discuss the progress of the relationship between India-US. "Great to welcome Ambassador Eric Garcetti of the United States," Jaishankar tweeted. He also discussed views on Quad, a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an alliance between India, the US, Japan and Australia.

"Discussed the enormous progress in our relationship, especially over the last decade. Exchanged views on the recent Quad Summit. Confident that India-US ties will continue to grow from strength to strength," the EAM's tweet read further. Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was on March 24 (local time) sworn in by US Vice-President Kamala Harris as the new US Ambassador to India.

The makeshift version of the Quad meeting (which was earlier scheduled to take place in Sydney) happened in Japan's Hiroshima recently. During the meeting, PM Modi, along with US President, Joe Biden; Prime Minister of Japa, Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shared a collective vision of a free, open Indo-Pacific amid China's growing assertiveness in the region.

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership and "transformative policies" initiated by his government and said the two countries are increasing their collaboration around critical emerging technologies.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the US-India 5G and Next Generation Networks Workshop, Garcetti said 5G presents a fantastic opportunity to collaborate towards an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, built on shared values and shared systems.

"India is in such wonderful hands. With your leadership, with the transformative policies that you and this administration are implementing together with the public sector and private sector and with that community aspect that defines everything that is part of India's rise right now.

This is the most exciting nexus in the world. The US-India relationship is where it is at," he said.