Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden are "committed to the Quad and the bilateral relationship," said Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Wednesday.
While speaking toin Washington DC, Sandhu said, "Both the leaders are committed to the bilateral relationship, as well as the Quad. During the COVID-19 in the US and we have to just look at the media. We are witnessing different comments, commentaries that still President Biden has gone ahead and also Prime Minister Modi is travelling all the way. This is perhaps his first international travel (during pandemic). And he's coming here and this reflects the commitment of both the sides, both the countries to work together."
He called the Quad a like-minded group "which has come together to focus on international issues and the problems". "As you can see, international problems require international cooperation for example COVID-19. COVID-19 in one country impacted many other countries. And therefore we see the first example of COVID-19 cooperation was the vaccines. So, in that four countries have come together. In this, US technology, Japanese finance, Australian lift power and India's production capacity are together and we are going to manufacture 1 billion doses in India, and that is very much part and parcel of the statement which Quad has come out."
Laying emphasis upon the education and knowledge partnerships, Sandhu said, "We have a new education policy in India, which is focusing on the internationalisation of education."
He mentioned that Washington is an important partner and the US has more than 2,00,000 Indian students. In the current academic year, a number of Indian students are here. "The US is welcoming them. They want more Indian students to come."
Sandhu also stressed that affordable healthcare is an important commitment of President Biden and India. He added that affordable medicines and affordable vaccines are two important objectives of the visit.
Focusing upon the IT sector, he said that the digital also brings in innovation, as well as startups, and "then there is the energy basket, in which we have renewables, you have LNG. You also have solar. And as I mentioned battery technology-- that's another area in which India is looking for big investments and the US is also looking for a future".
PM Modi on Wednesday embarked on a high-level US visit where he will address the UNGA session, participate in Quad meeting and hold bilaterals with the US president and other leaders.
( With inputs from ANI )
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