Eric Garcetti called Ajit Doval an “international treasure”. (FILE)
New Delhi:
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti on Tuesday praised National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, calling him an “international treasure”.
Highlighting Ajit Doval’s humble origins as a village boy from Uttarakhand, the envoy said, “India’s NSA has not only become a national treasure but an international treasure”.
The envoy also expressed admiration for the strong foundation between the United States and India.
“When I look at the foundation between the United States and India, it is so strong, it is so clear that Indians love Americans and Americans love Indians,” Mr Garcetti said at the United States-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) meet in Delhi.
Praising India’s advancements in digital payments and financial technology, the US Ambassador said: “When I look at digital payments and financial technology that India has, we have rocked the world. A ‘tea wala’ in a village makes sure that she gets direct payment from the government on her phone, a 100 per cent of each one of those rupees.”
He said he recently had dinner with a group of multi-faith leaders in India, one of them said “We hear all these talks about 4G, 5G and 6G, but here in India we have something more powerful than that-‘Guruji’.
Meanwhile, National Security Advisor of the US Jake Sullivan who is on a two-day India visit on Tuesday met his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval and discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest.
Mr Sullivan is accompanied by a delegation of senior US government officials and leaders of US industry during his visit. His visit to the national capital comes in the run-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming state visit to the US.
The two national security advisers had restricted discussions earlier in the day to discuss topics of common interest. Later that day, they both attended the second Track 1.5 discourse on it, which the Confederation of Indian Industry hosted.
The first edition of this dialogue was organised by the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC on January 30 this year, the release of Ministry of External Affairs said.
During the visit, NSA Sullivan will also meet with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and other dignitaries of the Government of India, the official press release of the Ministry of External Affairs said.
Earlier, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met each other in New Delhi and discussed Indo-Pacific, and cooperation in specific niche technologies in maritime, military and aerospace domains.
According to government officials, the two leaders also spoke on the greater transfer of technology, co-production and building indigenous capacities in line with India’s Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives.
Additionally, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and NSA Ajit Doval stressed that nations in several regions, including the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, and the Indo-Pacific retain their freedom of action in line with their national priorities and are not coerced into poor choices.
Austin, who arrived in India concluded a roadmap for Defence Industrial Cooperation with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
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