US-India need continued collaboration to face 'biggest challenges': Blinken

The United States and India need continued collaboration, hard work, and leadership for the biggest challenges that both countries face, including COVID-19, tackling climate crisis, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Speaking at the Howard University for India-US Education Collaboration on Tuesday (local time), Blinken said the University has played an important role in building bonds between India and the US.

Highlighting the "deeper academic" ties between the United States and India, Blinken further said that the partnership is absolutely crucial and pertinent for addressing the problems of the 21st century.

"US-India strategic partnership, I'm convinced, is absolutely crucial, essential for addressing the problems of the 21st century and your work is at the heart of that relationship," he said while interacting with students, and faculty.

"I believe firmly that the United States and India need continued collaboration, hard work, and leadership for the biggest challenges both countries face, whether it's combating COVID, whether it's building a more inclusive global economy, whether it's tackling the climate crisis," he said.

Blinken and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar participated in a conversation with students, faculty, and leadership of Howard University.

"We are incredibly fortunate that the US has 200,000 Indian students studying in our universities enriching our campuses and fellow citizens and we see many American students studying and working in India through programs like Fulbright or the Gilman fellowships," Blinken said.

Emphasizing the importance of India-US ties in expanding the partnership, the Secretary of State said a working group has been formed for the people of both the countries to facilitate learning.

"To make it easier for people -- a working group on education and skill training on the academic institution in the US and India together will develop a new joint research programme," he said.

"The group's focus is a lot on creating more opportunities for universities, partners...so that more of our people can learn alongside each other," he added.

"You can be developing recommendations on how India and the US can support each other on clean energy, this way you are promoting trade between our countries," Blinken said.

US Secretary of State also spoke about civil rights leader and American author, Howard Thurman's pilgrimage to India.

Blinken said Thurman was trying to "find lessons from the country's independence movement that might be relevant to the racial justice movement in the United States". He added that near the end of the trip, Thurman met with Mahatma Gandhi.

"The conversation (with Mahatma Gandhi) and the trip made a lasting impression on Thurman. So when he came back to Howard, he developed his interpretation of nonviolence - not as a political tactic, but as a spiritual lifestyle," Blinken stated.

"These connections and so many others across our shared history make clear that our people do share a special bond, and that as the world's oldest and largest democracies, our countries always have something to learn from each other," Blinken said, adding "that's why we see our cultural and educational ties continue to grow every single year."

(ANI)

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