US-India have common goals in future global context: Biden

US Vice president Joe Biden
US Vice president Joe Biden

NEW DELHI: Visiting US Vice president Joe Biden today said America and India have common goals in the emerging global scenario as he called on President Pranab Mukherjee here.

Mukherjee, for his part, said India-US relations “are based on shared fundamental values and a growing convergence of interests”.

Biden, on his second day of visit to the country, met Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the evening.

President Mukherjee, welcoming Biden, said India always gave high priority to its relations with the United States of America and it appreciates the strong voice of support for India-related issues in the Senate, including the bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

“India accords the highest priority to its relationship with the United States. India-US relations are based on shared fundamental values and a growing convergence of interests,” a Rashtrapati Bhawan statement, released after the meeting, quoting Mukherjee said.

Biden, according to the statement, said relations between the two countries were critical for the entire region.

“The issue is no longer what the US can do for India but what the two countries can do together in the world. No other two countries have so much at stake or in common in the emerging global scenario,” the statement quoted Biden as saying. Mukherjee said that over the last decade the bilateral relations of the two countries have evolved into a global partnership, which President Obama had rightly described as ‘one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century’.

India and the USA have more than thirty dialogue mechanisms covering every possible aspect of engagement between any two countries and strong people-to-people ties are the bedrock of relationship between the two countries, he said.

“The community of skilled professionals has been a champion of stronger India-US ties and has contributed enormously to expansion of trade and people to people ties,” Mukherjee said. -PTI