Former US envoy highlights India’s global role

“The Americans look at India differently now. We know how important India is for us. It is responsible for the strategies towards Middle East,Pakistan,Afghanistan,China and East Asia,” said former US ambassador to India,Frank Wisner.Wisner was in the city on Tuesday for an interaction with the members of the Confederation of Indian Industry at the Ista Hotel,Nagar Road on ‘Indo-US Relations -The Way Forward.’ In the country to strengthen the relationship between United States and India,Wisner spelt out the commonalities of interests between the two nations,India’s emergence as a superpower and the influence of Indian education and trade on the US.

“United States is hitting its fifth year of recession and is preoccupied with the ration crisis from Middle East,” said Wisner,who is also a former chairman of the Board of the US – India Business Council. He was hopeful about India rising to the status of a superpower and felt confident about US support. “We have joined hands to overcome all kinds of suspicion,set our objectives right and have already identified the common interests which are against terror and maintaining balance of power. The two countries are good for each other and India will do better with the United States supporting it,” he added.

He spoke about the increasing possibilities of educational collaboration among the two nations.

“Though the access to American education by the Indians is phenomenal,we would want more Indians in the advisory boards of several American universities,” added A Kuwatre,a mechanical engineering faculty at the Michigan Technological University.

“The Indian culture which was obscure 10 years back has an intense impact through its films,art,novels and promotional campaigns now,”said Wisner,who was visiting Pune after 15 years and added he was “overwhelmed by the way the city has developed.”