US election outcome won’t affect ties with India: Senior official

By Arul Louis New York, Oct 21 : A high-ranking US official said that he is optimistic that any possible outcome of the November 3 presidential election won’t affect the deepening ties with India because “this relationship is much bigger than any one political party”.
“What leaves me optimistic is the longer-term perspective I have on the US-India relationship,” US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said on Tuesday.
He said, “One of the constants in US-India relations has been that every presidential administration here in the United States has left the relationship in even better shape than the one it inherited from its predecessor and that is an amazing legacy.” Asked by a reporter about the future of India-US relations in the context of the upcoming elections, he said that India has been immune to policy changes with different administrations.
“Oftentimes we can see international relations move with the political shifts here in the United States, but India has been a constant,” he said.
“There are many sinews that tie us together, and it leaves me confident that this relationship is much bigger than any one political party,” said Biegun, the second-in-command at the State Department.