In U.S., Modi Stresses On Gains Of Free Movement Of Professionals
In U.S., Modi Stresses On Gains Of Free Movement Of Professionals
A year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India and the U.S. overcome the “hesitations of history”, he is more confident about growing convergence between the two nations.
Confidence in each other’s political values and a strong belief in each other’s prosperity has enabled our engagement to grow, the Prime Minister wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. “Whenever India and the US work together, the world reaps the benefits,” he said.
Stressing on the bilateral trade and opportunities, Modi said in the writeup that Indian manufacturing and services companies have invested around $15 billion in the U.S. and the American firms have likewise fuelled their global growth by investing more than $20 billion in India.
He said India offered an opportunity to create jobs in the both the nations. Smart cities to modernisation of infrastructure and housing for all by 2022 are not just promises of great urban renewal within India, he said in the opinion piece.
“These plans also showcase the enormous fruits of our relationships with enterprising U.S. partners—worth many billions of dollars over the next decade alone—together with concomitant new employment opportunities across both societies,” he said.
Giving the scope of the size of the opportunity, the Prime Minister said Indian companies will import energy in excess of $40 billion from the U.S. and more than 200 American-made aircraft will join the private Indian aviation fleet.
Free Movement Of Engineers, Scientists
Even as the U.S. President Donald Trump has gone ahead with his plan to curb H-1B visas, largely used by Indian software services companies, the Prime Minister stressed on the gains of free movement of professionals. “The creative and entrepreneurial energy of our engineers, scientists and researchers, and their free movement between both countries, continue to help India and the U.S. retain their innovation edge and maintain competitiveness in the knowledge economy,” he said.
Underlining the common security challenges the two nations face, the Prime Minister said they are working to address such issues in “Afghanistan, West Asia, the large maritime space of the Indo-Pacific, the new and unanticipated threats in cyberspace”. “The logic of our strategic relationship is incontrovertible.”
Modi, who enjoys massive support among India’s diaspora, said the three-million-strong Indian-American community represents the best of both the countries, and has played a crucial role in connecting and contributing to India and the U.S.
(The report has been curated from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal)