Kerry on U.S.-India Relationship, India’s Future

8/12/2019 Kerry on U.S.-India Relationship, Indias Future

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Kerry on U.S.-India Relationship, Indias

Future

28 July 2014

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATEOffice of the SpokespersonWashington, D.C.July 28, 2014

REMARKS

Secretary of State John Kerry

At the Center for American Progress India: 2020 Program

Center for American ProgressWashington, D.C.

SECRETARY KERRY: Neera, thank you very, very much. Thank you for confirming to meyour mothers fealty. (Laughter.) Im deeply appreciative for her support through the years andIm sorry we lost you when you were 18, but Im glad you wound up here, as is everybodyelse. Were delighted that youre here.

Its a privilege for me to be back at the Center for American Progress, and I am very, veryapologetic for the delay. I know Ive kept you all from your appointed rounds and I apologize

for that. Its good to get the telephone unglued for a few minutes here. Obviously, we are stillworking hard at trying to deal with the issue of the crisis in the Middle East. I spoke to it a littleearlier today, so Im not going to repeat what I said, except to say to all of you that we want tobe able to find a way to get to a table to discuss the underlying issues which are real andimpactful on everybody and on the region. And we hope to be able to find the magic formulaby which the violence could cease for a long enough period of time to try to find thatsustainable ceasefire which could allow you to move on from there. The region has knownviolence for far too long. Too many innocent people caught in the crossfire, too many livesruptured, and so it is imperative for all of us in positions of responsibility to do everything wecan to try to find a diplomatic way, a peaceful way forward if possible.

It is a privilege for me to be back here at the Center for American Progress. AmbassadorSandhu, thank you for being here representing the Embassy, the DCM here, all of our ex-ambassadors and ex-assistant secretaries of Defense and otherwise greatly appreciative fortheir supports and efforts to advance the very crucial relationship between the United States andIndia. And at a time when so many people are you know, back in history when they werelooking for a lot of simple slogans and silver bullets to cure an immediate problem, which waspretty basic, that the Democratic Party was out of the White House and sidelined in the minorityin both the House and the Senate thats when a guy named John Podesta stood up and wasdetermined to get past the day-to-day ups and downs of the Washington echo chamber, andhelped to shape a principled and progressive policy agenda for governing.

John knew then what he practices now in the White House for President Obama: Good policy


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is good politics. So excuse me, let me get rid of my flight here good policy really does makegood politics. I always found that and Ive always tried to practice that. Under Neera Tandensleadership for the last couple years, CAP has continued to prove that good ideas are still themost important currency in our political debate. And that is a principle that has also guidedCAPs work on foreign policy, especially in convening Track II, the first intensive climate

change dialogue between the United States and India.

India 2020 builds on that success by showing how the United States and India together cantackle global challenges, from security in the Asia Pacific to providing clean energy todelivering more inclusive growth. And Vikram Singh and Rich Verma are going to help lead ustogether on that, bringing some of the best minds together in terms of policy and politics, and Ithank you very, very much for your contribution. Rich and Vikram, thank you for what youreundertaking. It is really a dialogue about what is in most peoples currency but not always yetfully blossomed, one of the most important relationships internationally.

Now I just got back, as I think you all know, from a pretty intensive trip to Egypt, Israel, theWest Bank, and to Europe, working to try to find an end to the violence that has threatened ourally Israel, and which has also cost hundreds of innocent lives in Gaza and elsewhere. The factis that we were able to produce at least the beginnings of a ceasefire process, a 12-hourceasefire, then confusion over 4 hours and 12 hours. But the bottom line is the concept of that, Ithink, is still appreciated by all, and the key now is to find the road, not the question of what.

Now there are some in America who question Americas efforts actually not just in America.Theres some people who ask this elsewhere. But particularly here, they question about ourefforts to bring peace to various conflicts around the world. I think they ought to ask: Whatsthe alternative? Make no mistake, when the people of Israel are rushing to bomb shelters, when

innocent Israeli and Palestinian teenagers are abducted and murdered, when hundreds ofinnocent civilians have lost their lives, I will and we will make no apologies for ourengagement.

Ungoverned spaces threaten us all. Instability threatens us all. And upholding the rule of lawand humanitarian standards are not only national security imperatives; they are the right thing todo. This is who we are and this is what we do. And frankly, I think it is what we do withgreater gusto, with greater grounding, if you will, in international rule of law and structure, thanalmost almost any other country.

But I want to be very clear about something, and thats why Im here today: Even as we focus

on crises and flashpoints that dominate the daily headlines and govern the cable talk shows andso forth, even as that happens and they demand our leadership, we will always act with long-term strategic imperatives foremost in our mind, and thats why were here today. You can goto any capital in the world and you can find different nuanced and self-assured perspectivesabout American foreign policy. But if you were lucky enough to have the top hundred foreignpolicy thinkers sit in a room together and you asked them to name the most importantrelationships for which the United States, with that relationship, will most affect the direction ofthe 21st century, I can guarantee you this: Every single one of them would rank the U.S.-Indiarelationship right up there in the top tier.

So I want to emphasize the key relationship for the United States one of the key relationshipsfor the United States in that context is the deepening relationship with India, and particularly


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trying to deepen our ties with India in terms of our strategic imperatives, both of us. It doesntmatter just to us or to India; it actually matters to the world. And thats why, in my first monthsas Secretary of State, I went to India. And its no coincidence that at the time, I that in PrimeMinister Modis first 100 days in his government, Im now returning to Delhi for two days ofStrategic Dialogue and discussion. And it was no accident that in the intervening time, weve

had many discussions and meetings and the prime minister former Prime Minister Singh,came here to the White House during that period of time.

But then, of course, they had an election. And as everybody knows, from certain number ofmonths during an election, things tend to be put on hold. Now is the time to renew that dialoguewith a new government, with a new set of opportunities, new possibilities. This is a potentiallytransformative moment in our partnership with India, and were determined to deliver on thestrategic and historic opportunities that we can create together.

In a globalized world, we recognize that yes, Indias going to have many different partners.Thats the nature of the world were in today. But we believe there are unique opportunities for

just United States and India, and that the dynamism and the entrepreneurial spirit of Mumbaiand Bangalore, of Silicon Valley and of Boston that is precisely what is required in order tosolve some of the worlds greatest challenges.

President Obama is absolutely right to call this a defining partnership for the 21st century.Indias new government has won an historic mandate to deliver change and reform. Andtogether, we have a singular opportunity to help India to be able to meet that challenge toboost two-way trade, to drive South Asias connectivity, to develop cleaner energy, to deepenour security partnership in the Asia Pacific and beyond. The United States and India can andshould be indispensable partners for the 21st century, and that is, I assure you, the way we

approach the Modi government and the way we view this particular time. This week, SecretaryPritzker and I will be emphasizing those opportunities as we meet leaders of Indias newgovernment.

Now we face, as we all know and Neera talked about it, and it is true this is a particularlychallenging moment. Forces that were pent up for years in the Cold War tampened down bydictatorship and absence of freedom to speak have suddenly been released everywhere, andeverywhere everybody is in touch with everybody all the time. It changes the face of politicsprofoundly everywhere. People have more information, more ability to organize, more ability totalk to each other. So we do face a host of critical challenges together and we face a world inwhich more young people more rapidly are demanding more from their governments with too

many places where theres too little response. And that is a challenge for all governance, nonemore so than what we do to link our economies, India and the United States, in order to furtherour shared prosperity agenda.

What we do to strengthen global security and a rules-based international system, how we turnthe challenges of climate change into an opportunity for greater cooperation and economicgrowth these are the big challenges. These are opportunities for us. Our countries have had adecades-long relationship, and I can personally remember the lingering sense of suspicion anddistrust when I first went to India at the end of the Cold War. I traveled to Delhi, Mumbai,Bangalore with executives from companies like Raytheon and Nextel, companies that are doing

booming business in India today. I remember talking to then-Finance Minister Singh about thereforms that were needed and the opening up of the economy and the ability to be able to attract


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capital and have rules that made sense to everybody that we all understood. I remember thatback then, and I felt then the possibility of the enormous potential of a closer, strongerpartnership.

And now, its not hard to see how in this moment, we can actually deliver on that partnerships

full promise. The new Indian Governments plan, Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, together withall, development for all thats a concept, a vision that we want to support. We believe its agreat vision, and our private sector is eager to be a catalyst in Indias economic revitalization.American companies lead in exactly the key sectors where India wants to grow: in high-endmanufacturing, in infrastructure, in healthcare, information technology, all of them vital to sortof leapfrogging stages of development so you can provide more faster to more people

India also wants to build a more competitive workforce, and already 100,000 Indians studyeach year in American universities. But Americas community colleges actually set aremarkable standard for 21st century skills training. We should be expanding our educationalties across the board, increasing opportunities for young people in both of our nations. I knowPrime Minister Modi drew from that energy of Indias youth during his campaign. Herepeatedly pointed out that while Indias one of the worlds oldest civilizations, it has theworlds youngest population. Prime Minister Modi has said that young people have a naturalinstinct to rise like a flame. And he has spoken about Indias duty to nurture that instinct, andwe believe, frankly, thats a duty for both of our nations.

And that means strengthening the exchange in technical education, in vocational programs forhigh-skilled trades, and especially in areas where we can build on the entrepreneurial andinnovative spirit of both of our nations. And we all know about the extraordinary work ethicthat people in India have and the capacity to be able to do this and seize this opportunity. One of

the marked contrasts of this moment is this juxtaposition to parts of the world where youngpeople demanded a participation in this world they see around them, and rose up againstleadership that had stultified over the course of years, decades even Tunisia, Egypt, Syria.They all began without one flake of religious extremism involved in the revolutions thatbrought change. It was all about young people gathering and forcing the notion that theywanted something more to life. They wanted opportunity, education, respect, dignity, jobs, afuture.

So this possibility Ive just defined between India and the United States, which fits very neatlyinto Prime Minister Modis vision that he expressed in a campaign which was ratifiedoverwhelmingly by the people of his country is exactly the vision that we need to embrace now,

and thats why this opportunity is actually so ripe. This area of cooperation is particularlyexciting, I think, and Im particularly confident about these opportunities, because onlycountries that reward creativity the way the United States and India do could have possiblylaunched Hollywood and Bollywood. (Laughter.) Only countries that celebrate the entrepreneurthe way we do could have launched Silicon Valley and Bangalore as global epicenters forinnovation.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are in both of our DNA, and they not only make us naturalpartners; they give us natural advantages in a world that demands adaptability and resilience.The United States and India cannot afford to just sort of sit back and rest on these currently

existing advantages. We have to build on them and we have to build on them by investing morein one another. Now unlike some other nations, the United States cannot direct a private


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corporation to go invest in a particular country. President Obama cant order businesses tobuild factories in Kolkata or Chennai. It just doesnt happen.

But we do know this from several hundred years of experience: If Indias government deliverson its plans to support greater space for private initiative, if it creates greater openness for

capital flows, if it limits subsidies that stifle competition, if it provides strong intellectualproperty rights, believe me, even more American companies will come to India. They may evenrace to India. And with a clear and ambitious agenda, we can absolutely help create thoseconditions.

So as we work with our trading partners around the world to advance trade and investmentliberalization, India has a decision to make about where it fits in the global trading system.Indias willingness to support a rules-based trading order and fulfill its obligations will help towelcome greater investment from the United States and from elsewhere around the world. Thegreater transparency and accountability that Prime Minister Modi put in place during his time aschief minister tells us he has already provided a model of how raising standards can actuallyincrease economic growth.

Now I believe the United States and India should continue to reach for the ambitious target thatVice President Biden laid out last summer in India, to push from 100 billion to 500 billion ayear in trade. And whatever impediments we may face along the way, we need to always bemindful of the opportunities and the bigger picture around this. So its in our excuse me. It iscompletely in our mutual interest to address those obstacles that kind of raise their head hereand there as you go along the way and to remember that a lot bigger opportunities will comefrom more robust ties, so we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get draggeddown by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint. The bigger picture has to guide us

and the end game has to guide us.

If you have any doubts, just look at the opportunities that Ford is creating right now in India.Theyre doubling production from plants in Gujarat and Chennai. Theyre investing 1 billion tomake India a global hub for exports. Take a look at the jobs that TATA is creating forAmericans by expanding auto design and sales in the United States, adding to its 24,000employees already in this country. Already, Indian investment creates close to 100,000 jobsright here at home.

And we also convinced we are convinced that just as the United States and India can do moreto create shared prosperity, so can India and its neighbors. Simply from the size of South

Asias market 1.6 billion consumers and from Indias geography, sitting at the center of thisdynamic Asian continent, the opportunities are leaping out at us. Theyre just enormous. And

just to underscore how untapped this potential is, consider this: South Asia is the leastintegrated economic region in the world. Fastest growing region in the world, Southeast Asia.

By strengthening trade links with Bangladesh, by building on the political opening in Burma,by increasing trade with the Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, India can be at the heart of a moreconnected, prosperous region. So we are deeply committed to helping India grab ahold of theseopportunities.

Thats why the United States is supporting an Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor to connectSouth Asia to Southeast Asia. Thats why were focused on investing in regional


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infrastructures and in the creation of a regional energy market. And thats why weresupporting new trade routes linking Central and South Asia with the New Silk Road Initiative.I mean this is the possibilities here are gigantic.

Now clearly, Prime Minister Modi understands the opportunities that regional connectivity

provides for India and for a more stable, prosperous region. And by inviting leaders fromaround the region to his swearing-in, and by bringing them together to speak about connectingtheir economies as one of his first orders of business, he is eager for India to play a leadingrole. And guess what? So are we.

Nowhere is that leadership more critical than in improving cross-border trade and relationsbetween India and Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi took the important first step of invitingNawaz Sharif to his inauguration. Both men are business-minded leaders who want to createopportunity for their people. I talked to Nawaz Sharif after his visit there. He was veryencouraged, thought it was positive, possibilities he understood. So improved trade is a win-win for both countries and both peoples. And I know that there are plans for the commercesecretaries and foreign secretaries to meet in the coming weeks in order to build on that. Icommit to you that the United States will do everything we can to encourage India and Pakistanto work together and improve the prospects for both prosperity and stability in the region.

Now India has already shown a deep commitment to regional stability with the generousinvestments in Afghanistan. At this critical moment of transition and in the coming months,support from all across the international community will be vitally important. In the comingdays, I will continue to work closely with President Karzai, with the candidates, with theUnited Nations in order to provide Afghanistan with support during the transition. And welook forward to working also with India on this, and we look forward to India engaging with

its neighbors so that Afghanistans connections to the region and the world are defined by theopportunity that they can create together.

Far beyond Afghanistan, India is assuming greater responsibilities for regional and globalsecurity. As India plays an increasingly global role, its interests are served by forging strongpartnerships on a broad range of issues. Among South Asian nations and within internationalorganizations, India should be a global leader. Thats why President Obama voiced his clearsupport for a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member.

For several years, India has been a major partner in the fight against piracy in the Strait ofMalacca and off the Horn of Africa. Even as we speak, India and the United States are

participating in RIMPAC and Malabar joint naval exercises. Secretary Hagel will explorebroadening our deepening the deepening possibilities of our relationship with India when hetravels there in early August.

Counterterrorism is also a challenge to both of our nations. The United States and India arecontinuing a very close partnership in that regard we began after the horrific Mumbai attacks,and then we began to train first responders in order to help protect our citizens. And PresidentObama was critical clear crystal clear about the stakes for our counterterrorism partnership inhis West Point speech in May. And our two nations have already provided one model of howthese partnerships can work. Our collaboration on counterterrorism and real-time information

sharing has helped us confront common threats and bring terrorists to justice.


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But there is obviously room for us to be able to do more. When terrorist attacks took 400Indian lives in 2013 alone, we know that the threat of terrorism remains too real and far toohigh for Indias people. Confronting terrorism requires our continued partnership and itrequires continued vigilance. And it also means leading with our values. India and the UnitedStates are two nations that have worked hard to overcome our own divisions so that today we

draw strength from pluralism and diversity. Weve got to provide that example as we work toprovide opportunity beyond our borders, addressing the conditions that allow extremists tothrive in the first place.

I wont tell you where, but Ill tell you I was with a foreign minister of a country in Africarecently, and we had dinner and we talked kind of candidly and openly as you can in thatsituation. And he said to me I asked him about their Muslim population and what washappening. And he said, Well, X percentage of our population is Muslim, and were veryworried, because the bad guys have a strategy. They grab these young minds when theyre 13,14, 15, 16. They pay them originally, and then when they get the minds, they dont pay themanymore, they dont have to. Then they send them out to recruit or conduct a mission. And theysubvert the state. They have a strategy. Do we?

Its a prime question for all of us, and in so many parts of the world where 60 percent of thepopulation is under the age of 30, 50 percent under the age of 21, 40 percent under the age of18 and more in some places if these people dont find jobs and they dont get an educationand they dont have opportunity and dignity and respect and a voice, then you know whosgoing to grab them and say, out of frustration, Theres a better way. Thats part of ourchallenge and responsibility as great global powers, and thats part of how we tame the mostdangerous impulses of a more interconnected world.

One challenge that drives home just how interconnected and interdependent we are on thisplanet is this challenge of a lifetime called climate change. For millions of Indians, extremeweather and resource shortages are not future threats; they are here now. Theyre endangeringtheir health and prosperity and security every single day.

In Indias largest rice-producing region, West Bengal, the Monsoon rains have been 50 percentlower than average this year. This comes after the monsoons all but failed last year in severalIndian states, helping to cause one of the worst droughts in a generation, affecting 120 millionIndians.

In parts of northern India, armed bandits have imposed what amounts to a water tax,

demanding 35 buckets a day. So believe me, it is not hard to measure the ways in which climatechange every single day is already a catalyst for instability. I can show you places in the worldwhere tribes fight over a well and people are dying because of the absence of water.

And while parts of India suffer from a once-in-a-generation drought, others suffer from guess what historic rains. When I arrived in India last summer, Uttarakhand was grapplingwith historic floods that killed more than 5,000 people.

So climate volatility is clearly taking a toll on Indias population. And so is pollution. Of the 10cities in the world with the worst air quality, six are in India. Each year in India, the effects of

air pollution cause nearly 1.5 million deaths.


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So we know what the down sides are, but happily, guess what, we also know what thesolutions are. And forging these solutions is a huge economic opportunity for both of us. Thesolution comes from areas where we already do things very well, where weve already madegreat progress, where innovation, smarter energy policy, and clean energy technology arealready defining the future.

Let me just share with everybody I reinforce this again and again whenever I get a chance.The solution to climate change is energy policy. Its not some magical, unreachable,untouchable thing out there. Its not pie in the sky. Its energy policy. And where we put goodenergy policy in place, we reduce emissions and we begin to contribute to the solution. Its ahuge market, my friends.

I also remind people that the market that created the great wealth of the United States ofAmerica during the 1990s, which made Americans individually and otherwise richer thantheyd ever been in American history at the top end it made people richer than they did in the1920s when we didnt have an income tax, and every single quintile of American incomeearners saw their income go up in the 1990s. You know what that was? A $1 trillion marketwith one billion users. It was the high-tech computer, personal computer, et cetera market.

Todays energy market is a todays energy market is a $6 trillion market now, with four tofive billion users, growing to nine billion users over the course of the next 30 years, by 2050.Just think about that. Its an opportunity for huge numbers of jobs, for transformation in theprovision of our power, transformation in health, get rid lowering the pollution, moving intothe new energy sources, providing safety and security in energy so we dont have instability.And I could run on in the possibilities, not the least of which our global responsibility to standup for and leave a cleaner, better, more sustainable Earth to our children and our grandchildren.

Its a way of living up to our responsibility as stewards of the planet, which, by the way, isdirected to us in every major scripture of every major religion.

Now, both of our nations pride ourselves on science and innovation. So the bottom line is thisis up to us. Its up to us to deliver. I know Prime Minister Modi understands the urgency. Hescalled for a Saffron Revolution, because the saffron color represents energy. And he said thatthis revolution should focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy, to meetIndias growing energy demand. He is absolutely right, and together I believe that we can atlast begin a new constructive chapter in the United States-India climate change relationship.

The United States has an immediate ability to make a difference here, and we need to eliminate

the barriers that keep the best technology out of the Indian market. And the United States canhelp India find and develop new sources of energy through renewable technologies and greaterexport capacity for liquefied natural gas.

Already, weve brought together more than 1 billion in financing for renewable energy projects.And with this funding, we helped to bring Indias first 1,000 megawatts of solar power online.But we need to build on the U.S. India Civil Nuclear Agreement, so that American companiescan start building and can start providing clean power to millions in India. And we need tobuild on the $125 million investment that weve made in a Joint Clean Energy Research andDevelopment Center.

Prime Minister Modi has also made a commitment to electrify every home in India by 2019.


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With fewer limits on foreign technology and investment in Indias green energy sector, we canhelp make clean power more cost-effective and more accessible at the same time. We canprovide 400 million Indians with power without creating emissions that dirty the air andendanger public health. And by working together to help an entire generation of Indiansleapfrog over fossil fuels, we can actually set an example to the world.

So I readily acknowledge that todays climate challenges did not start with India. And we knowthat the United States is the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world the first now beingChina, who have overtaken us. But we also know that we cant solve these problems alone no one. They require partnership. And our partnership requires our leadership. By acting rightnow to reduce emissions, just as President Obama has done here in the United States, byinvesting in innovation, and by working together in the UN climate negotiations, we couldprevent the most devastating consequences of climate change and meet this generationalchallenge.

Lastly, in this century, one that will continue to be defined by competing models ofgovernment, India and the United States have a common responsibility we already have it; weshare it to prove that democracies can deliver for their citizens. Our two nations believe thatwhen every citizen, no matter their background, no matter their beliefs, can make their fullcontribution. That is when we are strongest and thats when were most secure.

So we are two confident nations, connected by core values, optimistic nations, never losingsight of how much more we can and must achieve. From womens rights to minority rights,there is room to go further with our work together. And we also have to speak with a commonvoice against the violence against women in any shape or form that is a violation against ourdeepest values.

The United States and India are two nations that began both of their founding documents withexactly the same three words: We the people. By deepening our partnership, we can worktogether to deliver opportunity to all of our people and become stronger nations.

President Roosevelt, of course, described America as having a rendezvous with destiny.Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about Indias tryst with destiny. Thiscan be a moment where our destinies actually do converge. And if we harness our capacity ofour two nations, if we deepen our partnership, if we make smart choices, if we seize theseopportunities, the United States and India can create a more prosperous and secure future forthe world and for one another.

That is why I leave for Delhi tomorrow night, and that is why the President will welcomePrime Minister Modi to Washington in September. Because this is the moment to transform ourstrategic relationship into an historic partnership that honors our place as great powers and greatdemocracies. We intend to leave not an instant behind us. We are going to get to work now.Thank you. (Applause.)

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Kerry on U.S.-India Relationship, India’s Future