Dismissing apprehensions that the Indo-US strategic relationship may harm the interests of India's neighbours, the United States has said contrary to this, the tie-up will be beneficial to the whole region.
"We certainly do not see any cause for concern on the part of India's neighbours for the relationship that is developing between the United States and India," US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters at the Foreign Press Centre of the State Department in Washington on Thursday.
"To the contrary, this is a relationship that holds the promise of greater stability, greater prosperity - greater prosperity for the entire region," he said when asked whether the tie-up may cause concern for India's neighbours.
"The way to look at it, frankly, is that the closer the integration, the greater the synergies between individual countries in a region, the greater the benefits for the region as a whole.
This is both in terms of trade because you've got goods flowing more freely, you've got economies of scale that work more effectively, that leads to increased employment, increased productivity, and increased income.
"When you've got an economic power, like India, which India undeniably is, working together with another world economic power, the United States, to maximise scientific research, to enhance agriculture - and these are parts of our developing relationship - there are going to be ripple effects that have a positive impact on countries like Bangladesh, like Nepal, like Sri Lanka, like Pakistan," Ereli said.
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"So I think that this is a forward movement that not only serves as an example and will help to support closer ties between countries of the region and the United States, but it also has a very real economic impact.
"India is a rising power and the best way to deal with rising powers is to integrate them into partnerships, international institutions, international cooperative ventures because that channels the energy and the impulses of a developing power in positive, mutually supportive, mutually beneficial directions.
"And that really is, I would say, the philosophical premise of what we're doing and in that respect, India's neighbours, I think, should welcome this partnership, should see it as a move towards responsible cooperation that will help ensure that India's and the region's development -scientific, technical, economic - develop in ways that are constructive, that are integrated well into world systems, that are responsive to the needs of the people of India, needs of the United States, needs of the region, and consistent with the direction that the rest of the world is moving in," he said.