The U.S. policy on India is unique and is one of the very few policy areas that has support from both the Democrats and the Republicans, Minister Counsellor of Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi Herro Mustafa has said.
She was addressing students and faculty of the Department of Political Science, University of Kerala, at Karyavattom on Tuesday.
Terming India one of the priority countries, Ms. Mustafa said in the 14 months she had been posted in India, there were many high-level delegation visits, indicative of the deepening relationship between the two countries.
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To a question on the term partner which seemed to imply an unequal relationship, she said India made decisions based on its strategies, citing the instance of India abstaining from the UNGA vote on Syria. “We did not say that we condemned their decision,” she said.
The discussion was followed by a screening of a part of a documentary titled ‘American Herro’, based on the Iraq-born diplomat's life. Her family, opponents of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, fled to North Dakota when she was a child. She rose in the administration and was assistant to former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Senior Adviser on the Middle-East to U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden.
Accompanying Ms. Mustafa was an official from the U.S. Consulate in Chennai Matthew Beh, who covers activities in Kerala and Karnataka. He said the consulate was looking forward to participating in the ‘Emerging Kerala’ meet in September. He said they were keen on playing a supporting role in the dialogue between the ISRO and the NASA.
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