By Arun Kumar
Washington, Nov 10 (IANS) When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits the US this month, he and President Barack Obama will create a framework to take their already “comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence” to “a new level”, according to the Indian ambassador here.

“We are at an exciting moment of hope and opportunity as Prime Minister Singh and President Obama prepare to build on the progress we have made to take the relationship to a new level,” Meera Shankar said in a keynote address at the prestigious James Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Houston’s Rice University Friday.

“The heart of their effort will be to create a framework that unleashes the energy and the enterprise of our people - to build a relationship that will make our nations safer and more prosperous but also help to address the global challenges that we face,” she said.

Manmohan Singh is arriving here Nov 24 on what is the first official state visit hosted by President Obama - considered a signal honour for India and showing the deep respect he has for the Indian prime minister.

Through the terms of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican George Bush, the two governments invested extraordinary political capital in transforming their relationship, which culminated in the historic civil nuclear agreement in October 2008, Shankar said.

The nuclear agreement “that has been as much a symbol as an instrument of the transformation in our relationship” with an “extraordinary breadth of our engagement (that) has taken us into, hitherto, uncharted territories, including defence, intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation”, she said.

“I can’t think of a field of human endeavour, where we are not breaking new grounds and re-defining the paradigm of our engagement.

“Today, the India-US relationship has evolved into a truly comprehensive partnership of mutual trust and confidence, intensifying political dialogue that is increasingly global in reach, and deepening strategic understanding,” Shankar said.

Shared democratic values and converging security interests, especially in the context of Asia and the new unconventional threats that are growing, had led them to seek a closer relationship, Shankar said.

However, “the real wind in our sail has been the tremendous growth in our economic partnership and the ties between our peoples”, she said. Just in the last five years, India-US trade doubled and US exports to India grew three times.

A new phenomenon in recent years has been the surge in Indian investments into the US, she said, noting that on the basis of annual flows, these now exceed US foreign direct investment into India.

“As we enter a new phase in our relationship, at a moment of great global economic uncertainty, our economic partnership will be a new source of strength in our relationship.” Shankar said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in )