Arun Singh, India‘s ambassador to the United States, stopped in Atlanta last week amid America’s combative and tumultuous presidential primary.
That raised a question from the crowd: Will his country maintain a fruitful and close relationship with the next administration as it has had under other governments, particularly those of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama?
“I’m 100 percent confident of that,” Mr. Mr. Singh told Global Atlanta.
On the Hill, there’s “bipartisan support” for a strong relationship between Washington and New Delhi, and the relationship will “continue to prosper” as it has with Barack Obama, the only U.S. president to visit India twice while in office.
In the last quarter-century, political, military and economic ties with the United States have deepened, including a bilateral trade relationship that has multiplied more than tenfold during that time to $66.3 billion.
Mr. Singh entered India’s Foreign Service in 1979 and served in many posts during his career, including ambassadorships to Israel and to France.
Since April, he’s been India’s top diplomat in America, representing the government of Narendra Modi, a prime minister intent on modernizing the country and growing its economy and infrastructure.
In remarks before the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and in an interview with Global Atlanta, he discussed his country’s challenges and went over his Atlanta itinerary.
He met with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and local Indian-Americans, a range of people including professionals, academics and businesspeople.
In the heart of Atlanta, he visited the King Center and paid homage to the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and viewed the memorial there for Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi led the non-violent movement that helped bring India independence. His tactics inspired Dr. King, who used the same methods in the fight for African American civil rights.
Dr. King’s reverence for Gandhi strikes a chord with Indians. The actions of both leaders, both of whom were assassinated, underscore the importance, Mr. Singh said, of pursuing important objectives peacefully.
Mr. Singh mentioned Dr. King’s trip to India in 1959 and how his description of the journey typified his reverence for Gandhi.Dr. King went to India “not on a visit,” he said, but “on a pilgrimage.”
In Marietta, he dropped by Lockheed-Martin Corp.’s factory, which produces C-130J planes for India. Six have been built and six are under construction, he says, signifying a new era of defense partnership with the United States. He cited maritime cooperation, the fight against terror and piracy and military exercises.
He was asked about Pakistan at the World Affairs Council appearance. For many Americans, Delhi’s long contentious relationship with Islamabad is the major issue in Indian foreign policy.
But Pakistan, Mr. Singh notes, doesn’t define India’s foreign relations; its national interests do and the country is intent on building “good relations with every country in the world.”
The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and Israel are examples cited by Mr. Singh of countries with whom New Delhi has forged ties.
Despite differences with Beijing, India has a large trading partnership with China.
Japan and India recently announced a deal for a bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
India has shown its diplomatic clout in Afghanistan, Mr. Singh said, by helping the country rebuild institutions such as hospitals and schools and elements of its infrastructure.
It is in India’s interests to foster governing stability in a country that had been a base for attacks against India, Mr. Singh said.
Prime Minister Modi was greeted warmly and enthusiastically in December when he inaugurated the new parliament building in Kabul, a complex constructed by India.
His remarks and visit reflected a profound “emotional link” between Afghans and Indians, Mr. Singh said.
Asked about Make in India, Mr. Modi’s manufacturing initiative, Mr. Singh cited “good progress” in attracting more foreign direct investment. He said more needs to be done to improve infrastructure development and that the country is working on that.
Along with the bullet train, for example, the country is starting a railway university to help modernize every aspect of that all-important mode of transportation and shipping.
As part of its modernization initiatives, the country has been making effort to make doing business and getting a foothold there simplified and less cumbersome. He intimated that this is the time for investors to make the jump to India.
“Head for the airport,” Mr. Singh said. “Seize the initiative now.”
India has an estimated 1.2 billion-plus population, which is mostly young and growing quickly.
“We create an Australia every year,” he quipped. That country has a population of an estimated 24 million people.
So, India will need a populace with trade, business and professional skills to keep pace with the growth, he said.
Mr. Singh’s visit came as Amnesty International issued a report saying India was fostering intolerance of dissent among civil society groups. That reflected longstanding some concerns about the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and Mr. Modi, who was criticized for not doing enough to stop religious riots that led to more than 1,000 deaths, mostly Muslims.
Asked about this report, Mr. Singh took the opportunity to say his land is a robust democracy that is linguistically, ethnically and religious diverse — akin to a United Nations in one country.
He lauded the country’s “well-established constitutional process” and its “robust” and “lively” debates in and out of parliament.
“Our government has made it clear,” he said, that it does not practice intolerance.