‘Time of Great Opportunity’ for U.S. and India: Usha Vance

Usha Vance. File photo
| Photo Credit: AFP

The U.S. India relationship is in a phase of “great opportunity”, U.S. Second Lady Usha Vance has said. Ms. Vance, whose parents are from Andhra Pradesh, said that she had a personal relationship with India as she had family ties to the country and had visited India as she was growing up.

“So that’s always been a relationship that I’ve personally thought of as very important,” Ms Vance said, during a Monday evening discussion at the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum’s (USISPF) Leadership Summit in Washington DC.

“The way that I think about it more broadly is I think this is a time of great opportunity. And I think if my husband [ U.S. Vice President J. D. Vance] were here, he’d say the same thing,” Ms Vance said, adding that historically , the two countries’ goals and needs had not always been in alignment. Ms Vance suggested, however, that in the next four years and beyond there was an opportunity, which she linked to the people to people ties. The relationship has generally enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Washington.

India and the U.S. are in the throes of negotiating the first phase of a Bilateral Trade Agreement, with U.S. trade negotiators in India this week for talks. U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on the U.S.’s trade partners, with India being subject to a 26% rate , potentially.

During the discussion with USISPF Chairman John Chambers, which did not venture further into political topics, Ms. Vance spoke about how she met her husband at Yale Law School, their family’s recent visit to India and their interactions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She also spoke about her program to promote reading among children in the U.S.