Recognising New Delhi as a reliable and valuable partner, top American officials have told a group of Indian chief executives that Washington values India's human resources and wants to take the economic ties between the two countries to a new level.
"The message that came was the very high degree of appreciation and value for Indian human resources. They value Indian human resources. They reassured us many times that there is nothing to worry and we should not be concerned about it," Sunil Bharati Mittal, chairman and group CEO of Bharati Enterprise, told PTI.
Mittal led the CII's CEOs mission to the US to hold the first high level interaction with the officials of Obama administration.
The delegation was assured that the US wants to build a relationship with India which was articulated by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her confirmation hearing at the Congress.
During a series of meeting over the past two days, officials of Obama administration and Congressional leaders told the Indian delegation that they not only want to take the economic ties with India to a new level, but also consider India as a reliable and valuable partner, Mittal said.
The delegation got assurance that India would be the center stage of America's thought process.
On Thursday, the delegation met the World Bank president Robert Zoellick; special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke; and US treasury secretary Tomothy Geithner. They also met Congressmen, Howard Berman, chairman of house committee on foreign affairs; and Gary Ackerman, chairman, house subcommittee on Middle-East and South Asia.
At all these meetings, the business leaders expressed India's concerns over the voices of protectionist measures, stressed on the need of Indo-US business ties at the time of global economic crisis and discussed the present situation in the subcontinent, particularly in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, the delegation had met Jim Steinberg, Deputy Secretary of State at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department. At the White House they met Lawrence Summers, director of National Economic Council, and Michael Froman, deputy assistant to the US President Barack Obama and Deputy National Security Adviser.
