United States Senator Barack Obama, during his
exclusive interview with
rediff.com on Monday, where he apologised for his campaign's circulation of a memo attacking his Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton's Indian links, said he is "absolutely committed," to the US-India relationship and the envisaged strategic partnership between the two countries.
Obama, who represents the state of Illinois and is a member of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Commitee, who voted in favor of the US-India civilian nuclear agreement in the Senate although he had expressed some misgivings centered on non-proliferation concerns, pointed out, "As I have said publicly many times, the United States has a strong interest in making sure that economic growth is continuing in India, that workers in India have increased opportunity."
The document, which his campaign had put out and created an uproar in the Indian-American community, had attacked Hillary Clinton's record on outsourcing, on protecting American jobs, in addition to casting aspersions on Indian-American fundraiser of her campaign, and had dubbed her the Democrat from Punjab.
However, in the interview, speaking of US-India relations, Obama declared, "India is one of our most important allies in the world and will be increasing in importance as times goes on."
"Our economies are very integrated, we share many cultural affinities -- we are both democracies that are committed to the rule of law --
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