US is looking at the country to be a ‘partner’ and a ‘provider of security’ in the ‘Indian Ocean and beyond’, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said
‘When it comes to India, we have seen a watershed in our relations — cooperation that would have been unthinkable in the recent past….It is a genuine convergence of national interests’, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore. He praised India’s positive role in development of Afghanistan post-Taliban.
The strategic landscape of Asia continues to evolve as new and re-emerging centres of power — from China and Russia, to India and Indonesia — combined with other shifts, give impetus to the search for new security architecture in the region, he said, according to a transcript of his speech.
On US-China relations, Gates said it is essential for both countries to ‘find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible’ including maintaining a defence relationship marked by ‘consistent and open channels of communication and contact’.
