The Israel-Hamas conflict and bombardment of Gaza could “pause” progress on India-U.S. trade, and connectivity initiatives, including the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) and the India-Israel-UAE-U.S. (I2U2) groupings, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said, but that the ideas would “stand the test of time”. Speaking about the India-U.S. 2+2 dialogue held on November 10, Ambassador Garcetti said that bilateral cooperation is growing in several domains. He also said that the two countries must advance their engagement on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), highlighting dangers that had been outlooked by both U.S. President Joseph Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at different events last week.
However, the Ambassador was non-committal about Mr. Biden’s appearance at the virtual G-20 summit to be hosted by Mr. Modi on November 22, as well as whether he would accept India’s invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade and attend the Quad Summit in January 2024.
“I do think that there is a fundamental logic to the IMEEC and I2U2 agreements, and these ideas will stand the test of time. But there’s no question that the conflict will give some pause to them,” Mr. Garcetti said in response to a question from The Hindu on the impact of repercussions from the Israel-Hamas conflict that has seen thousands killed in the past few weeks.
