PM Modi was instrumental in forging consensus at G20 Summit: White House top official hails India

Washington, Nov 21: A top White House official on Sunday has now hailed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being instrumental in forging a consensus during the recently concluded G-20 Summit.

Addressing a gathering of several hundred Indian-Americans, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said that the year 2022 has been a huge year in the history of India-US relationship and 2023 will be even bigger.

"Looking around the world when the United States and (its) President (Joe) Biden look for partners that can truly help carry the load, truly helped move forward a global agenda, India and Prime Minister Modi are very high on that list," PTI quoted Finer as stating at the event. He added, "We just saw this in real time at the G-20 where the prime minister was instrumental in forging a consensus around a joint statement among a far-flung group of countries and in the comments and work that the Prime Minister has done and others in the Indian government have done to highlight the increasing risk related to nuclear issues,"

The top White House officials including US President Joe Biden's senior Neera Tanden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy attended the lunch reception hosted by the Embassy of India to celebrate the event that demonstrated India's unique stature as the embodiment of 'Unity in Diversity'.

"This event really demonstrates so much about what President Biden is talking about when he talks about an inclusive country, a country that celebrates our diversity and our strength in diversity," Tanden said. "I'm grateful for this partnership that we have between the United States and India. I think it has been important in the past, but it will be even more important going forward," Dr Murthy said.

2023 Bigger Year for India-US Relationship

Talking about India-US relationship, Finer said that 2022 and 2023 are critical years. "The year 2022 was huge in US-India relations. We think we have an even bigger year ahead in 2023. We have the Quad summit on the agenda coming up. We have India's G 20 presidency, which I know we're all be looking forward to, including Prime Minister Modi," Finer said in his address.

He mentioned about 2+2 Quad ministerial meetings taking place this spring, the relaunch of Indo US CEO dialogue and the launch of critical and emerging technology dialogue early in 2023.

"We are deeply committed to doing just that. It's easy to see why that is the case. At a time that can be extremely difficult to forge a bipartisan consensus in Washington on almost anything, there is a strong bipartisan consensus in support of the US-India relationship and has been for decades and a high degree of continuity from one administration to the next," he said.

"There is obviously an increasing alignment of our interests, both geopolitically and as two world leading democracies. And then of course, the deep ties and incredible dynamism of our diaspora community, our cultural ties or commercial ties. And then finally, and I don't want this to be lost, there are the ties of our leadership, which we consider to be hugely important," he said.

'Today's Era Must Not be of War'

This statement comes just days after the White House said that India played an essential role in negotiating the Bali Declaration of the recently concluded G-20 Summit in Indonesia and the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear that today's era must not be of war. "India played an essential role in negotiating the summit's declaration. Prime Minister Modi made clear today's era must not be of war," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is quoted as saying by media house.

The White House hailed the Indian PM for saying that today's era must not be of war. "Among other priorities addressed, we have a path forward to addressing current food and energy security challenges while continuing our efforts to build a resilient global economy," she said.

"India played an essential role in negotiating the summit's declaration. Prime Minister Modi made clear today's era must not be of war," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her daily news conference.

With inputs from PTI