White House official echoes ‘larger, responsible role’ for India in US foreign policy

Japan had the centre stage in Quad's state of affairs this week in the wake of Tokyo's publicised aim of doubling its defence spending to about 2 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through 2027. But for increased coordination between the rest of the partners of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), the White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs said that Washington's interests align with India playing a larger, responsible role in the US foreign policy.

"Our interests are to see India playing an ever larger, responsible role in almost everything that we are doing," Kurt Campbell, the White House coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs said at Indo-Pacific forecast 2023, an annual preview of security developments held by Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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Japan will host the annual summit of Group of Seven (G-7) nations in May, which will be followed by a Quad summit in Australia in the same month. India will host the annual summit of Group of 20 (G-20) nations in September 2023. In November, the US President Joe Biden is scheduled to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco in November.

"We have got a lot of things that we are planning for 2023, active travel in the region," Campbell said, hinting at more presidential and official US visits in the Indo-Pacific region.

As this year's president of the Group of 20, India is expected to be the focus of U.S. diplomacy, Nikkei Asia reported.

Meanwhile, the United States expects India to "diversify" its defence imports, in a series of moves aimed at taking New Delhi away from its dependence on Moscow,

"We have stated clearly our interests to help India diversify away from its reliance, largely on Russian military supplies. We work closely with a number of other nations, like-minded nations, that also seek that goal," he said.

ALSO WATCH |Indian Prime Minister addresses Voice of Global South Summit

India hosted the first Voice of Global South Summit, with an aim to bring together developing countries from Asia, Africa and South America in a two-day virtual summit. The summit held relevance in the wake of New Delhi's status of G-20 host later this year.

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