Admitting the need for such a dialogue process, the US Ambassador to India, Nancy J Powell predicted India’s pivotal role in the American gameplan for rebalancing in Asia-Pacific.

Releasing Observer Research Foundation’s new publication, America in the Asian Century, here on Tuesday, Powell also stressed on the need for a strong US-India partnership to realise prosperity and progress in the region.

She reiterated that India is the most important partner for the United States in the region.

Talking about the importance of India in the US relations, Powell quoted former US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake who had said: “To fully understand why South Asia matters, we need to first look at the Asia Pacific as a single geographically coherent space; one that not only ends on our own shores, but also expands westward to encompass the Indian subcontinent. Much of the history of the 21st century will be written in this broader Asia-Pacific region, projected to become home to over 5.2 billion people by 2050. That history will have a profound impact on the people and the economy of the United States.”

The US Ambassador said Blake had noted that any discussion of South Asia has to start with India. It is one of our most trusted and valuable partners in the region, and really the foundation upon which greater regional economic cooperation and expansion will be built.

“I will also echo him when I say that “as we go about the much-talked about ‘Asia rebalance’, there’s no more important partner for the United States in the region than India,” she said.

Powell noted the US-India relationship is broader and deeper today than it has ever been. She said “this is evidenced by all of the areas in which we cooperate. While our trade is approaching $100 billion, there was a time when it was just around $ 3 billion a year. India has leaped from our 25th largest trading partner to our 13th largest trading partner in just over a decade. I do believe that bilateral trade can increase far beyond $100 billion annually, but there are barriers that must first be addressed, as many of your own reports have stated.”

Talking about the importance of the relationship, the US Ambassador said while the US Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were in India this summer, Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will visit the US in September.

Complimenting ORF for its work, the US Ambassador termed this publication as an example of the key contributions, a compilation of essays that analyse US policies, past and present, and our history in Asia in order to examine what the US role will be in this region in the 21st century.

The book, America in the Asian Century, is edited by the former president of the ORF Centre for International Relations and former foreign secretary of India, MK Rasgotra. The book includes papers written by ORF scholars on US’s influence on all important Asian countries.