Five-fold increase in Indo-US trade ambitious and apt, says Nisha Desai Biswal

Washington: United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal has said that Washington wants to see India rising and become a global economic engine, and that is why the ambitious target of increasing bilateral trade between the two nations five-fold to 500 billion dollars is apt.

“It’s a very ambitious target, but, when you have the world largest economy and the third largest economy, you should have ambitious targets. Recently, a major report was put out by the Petersen Institute that talks about what is at stake for India. It talks about a potential of 60 percent increase in terms of export-led-growth in GDP. That’s why we have set such ambitious targets because we want to see India rise. We want India as a global, economic engine,” Biswal told ANI here.

“It is really about creating the ease for business to be able to partner with each other and invest in each other and that is really what is at stake here… there is a huge potential there for both countries,” she added.

During the India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S and CD), several bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest would be discussed between the two sides. The S and CD is expected to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations between India and the US and also identify possible areas for future cooperation, including in strategic, defence and security; energy and environment; science and technology and space; health, education and human development; third country engagement; economy and finance; and trade and investment fields. (ANI)