US envoy Eric Garcetti spells out dynamics of India-US ties, says nations moved from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘dating’

US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has drawn attention to the dynamic bilateral ties between India and America at a global tech summit and stressed that the relationship between the two nations was ever-changing for the better and growing rapidly broader and deeper. Garcetti was addressing the Carnegie’s Global Tech Summit 2023. Drawing a parallel with modern dating lingo, the US envoy said India and America are dating each other now. He also threw in a reference to social media updates among the youth. “It’s like our Facebook status for a long time, between the US and India, was ‘It’s complicated’. Now, when you log in, it’s like, “They’re dating’,” he said. “And then we’re trying to figure out, maybe we’ve even moved in together and we’re like well your habits are a little different than mine… And we’re also trying to figure out, where does this go?” Garcetti added. The US ambassador to India reaffirmed that there’s a positive romantic ambiguity about where this will ultimately lead, “But there’s a strong desire on both [sides to take the relationship forward].” He said the India-US relationship is not additive, it’s multiplicative. Recalling India’s successful presidency of the G-20 summit, Garcetti “We demonstrated that at G20, where it was more than just 1+1 equals 2 countries, 1+1 actually produced 20 countries together with a historic and strongest, deepest statement ever put forward by a G20,” Garcetti said. On China being an important factor behind India-US ties, Garcetti denied that the relationship was based on this factor. He said, “Our relationship is 95% fundamentally about other things. China is about deterrence.” The US envoy also spoke about Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). He said there are challenges pertaining to the “highest taxed input”. “It’s not a criticism…but it’s harming your own internal capacity to be the manufacturing powerhouse that India should be. That we want it to be. That it is starting to accelerate to become but it will require some fundamentally deeper changes,” he said. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, who also participated in the discussions, said, “The relationship is amazingly multi-faceted, but it’s also constantly evolving.”