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'Obama-Biden team will take
India-US relationship to next level'
By
Lalit K. Jha
New
York, Nov 5 (IANS) An influential Democratic Indian American
leader has asserted that the Obama-Biden team in the White
House would take the India-US relationship to the next level.
Swadesh Chhatterjee has also discounted a recent Obama statement
that he would help resolve the Kashmir dispute, which some
in India saw as interference.
"Though
there is a perception that the India-US relationship would
go backwards (under Obama presidency), there is no reason
to think that way," Chatterjee, national financial chair
of Asian Americans for Obama, told IANS after the Illinois
Senator was declared winner of the presidential election.
Chatterjee,
who was bestowed with a Padmashri by the Indian Government
in 2001 for playing a key role in rebuilding India-US relationship
post-Pokhran II, is known to be a close friend of the Vice
President-elect Joe Biden.
"I
think, Obama-Biden team would look at India as one of the
strongest allies of the United State in the 21st century,"
said Chatterjee, who played a lead role in galvanising the
Indian American community to get the India-US nuclear deal
passed by the US Congress.
Chatterjee
said the Biden-Obama team feels India has a lot to offer to
resolve the issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "I think
the US needs the help of India, and no other country can help
the US better than India," he said.
When
asked about the recent statement of Obama that he would facilitate
resolving the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan,
Chatterjee said people are reading much more into it than
they should.
"Because
Obama made the comment that Kashmir issue should be resolved
does not mean that the US is going to interfere," he
observed.
"I
really believe that Obama would take exactly the same position
as was told before by the Democratic Party, that Kashmir is
an issue between India and Pakistan and they should resolve
within themselves. No way is the US going to interfere on
the Kashmir issue," Chatterjee said.
Referring
to his close association with Biden, Chatterjee said the Vice
President-elect would play the most influential role in shaping
the foreign policy of the US in the Obama administration.
Biden currently is chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
"Biden
is a friend of India. He would play a very important role
when it comes to having relationship with India," he
said, adding: "You would see the relationship grow much
deeper."
Indo-Asian
News Service
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