Deepening Of Military Ties with India "Destined": Ex-US Defence Secretary

Ash Carter cautioned that the United States must be aware of the past, including India's policies of non-alignment and its historic military ties with Russia.

A deepening partnership between the US and India in the military and security sphere is "destined to occur" as there is too much in common between the two large democracies that share really good values, according to former American defence secretary Ash Carter. Speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce hosted session, Mr Carter said the two countries shared more than just the English language. "In fact, it is destined. I think it's in fact destined to occur, because there's just too much in common between us... In interests, in functioning," Mr Carter, who was defence secretary from 2015 to 2017 under the Obama administration, said when asked if he felt going forward by deepening partnership with India that extends powerfully to the military and security sphere. "I'll give you an example. The last conversation I had with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi when I was in office. He and I were reflecting on something that wasn't germane to every particular that we were discussing. But I was remarking to him, how many Indian and Indian-American entrepreneurs there were in the tech world, in the United States. And I said, there's something kindred about mentalities there," he said.