WORLD NEWS | India emerges as natural partner for US supply chain diversification: Congressman Bella

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (PTI) — India is a natural partner as U.S. companies diversify their supply chains, said an influential U.S. lawmaker, as he asserted that the recently announced deal between Air India and Boeing Co. The deal is a testament to the modernization of India’s civil aviation industry.

On Tuesday, Air India announced it agreed to buy 190 Boeing 737 MAXs, 20 Boeing 787s and 10 Boeing 777Xs – a total of 220 firm orders at a price tag of $34 billion, which will support more than 1 million US jobs in 44 states, Many of these do not require a four-year college degree.

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“We realized through the pandemic; how dependent our supply chains are on China. When we urge US companies to diversify their supply chains, India is a natural partner there. They are of course in the pharmaceutical industry, they have an established pharmaceutical industry , but India also has a very active tech sector in defense production and other technology areas,” Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera told PTI.

India has historically been a non-aligned country but is increasingly becoming a bigger economic power, an important ally, cooperating with the US on maritime security and becoming its trading partner, he said.

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Bera was recently elected to serve as Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific for the 118th Congress. He was also selected by Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to serve on the influential House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Referring to the recently announced Air India-Boeing deal, he said it is not only good for the US but also shows that India is modernizing its airports.

Bella said Chinese President Xi Jinping has led the country in a very different direction than many had hoped 10 years ago, that China would become a more open and democratic market.

“It’s obviously become very different. We do worry about some aggression from Beijing. The Chinese spy balloon is just the latest example of that aggression. But you’ll see it on India’s northern border. You’ll see it in the South China Sea . You saw it in Sri Lanka, how the Chinese used economic coercion, which really created a lot of debt in Sri Lanka, and now their economy is a mess,” he said.

“I think we have to work with our allies Japan, (Korea) South Korea, the European Union and India to provide alternatives to many other countries that need development. Of course, African countries are starting to be wary of China and they need this kind of assistance and development again . I think this is another place where the US and India can work together,” he said.

Bella said he had shared his thoughts with the Indian government on how the two countries could cooperate in Africa.

“India obviously has a very deep and ancient relationship with Africa, there is a large diaspora there. We work with USAID and the Indian development agency. We can help develop some of these markets to solve some of the problems in Africa,” he said.

“Another initiative launched by President Biden is U2I2, which consists of the United States, the UAE, Israel and India. We encourage these four partners to work together on projects. The first project will be in India around water resource management, food safety issues, etc. Expand. It’s a partnership and it can also be a tool that can give us some areas of cooperation,” he said.

“We’ve been trying to get a trade deal with the Indians. Maybe the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is the tool we can no longer formalize a trade deal with,” he said.

Bella said he will continue to strengthen the relationship between the United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

“India is one of those allies, along with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. In my last two years as chairman of the (House Indo-Pacific Foreign Affairs Subcommittee), I have been very focused on Southeast Asia and the importance of the region and continue to hope to carry out this work among minority groups and continue to build our influence and relationships in Southeast Asia,” he said.

“India is increasingly becoming a very important geopolitical ally. I look forward to working with Chairman McCaul and Subcommittee Chairman Yong Kim to continue to travel to regions that really build on these types of things,” Bera said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)