The comment from assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs came ahead of the February 25 talks between foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir.
As India and Pakistan prepare for foreign secretary-level talks in Delhi next week, the US has said it is keen to see the two countries reach a "stable" relationship on their own terms at the appropriate time.
"While we would like to see India and Pakistan reach a stable relationship, they will do so on their terms at the appropriate time," assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, Robert Blake said at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs yesterday.
His comments come ahead of the February 25 talks between foreign secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart
Salman Bashir during which India is expected to focus on the
issue of terrorism.
Terming counter-terrorism as a "critical component" of the strategic cooperation framework between India and the US, Blake said "our two countries cooperate more and more, particularly since the horrific November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which the Indians refer to as '26/11'".
He said home minister P Chidambaram's "highly successful" US visit last year underscored the breadth of the still-expanding cooperation on this crucial issue.
On the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, Blake said "a few more steps are still required, and we expect them to be completed in the next few months."
"This (the deal) has the potential to lead to billions of dollars worth of opportunities for American companies and many thousands of jobs as a result of that."
Blake also said that president Barack Obama is "most likely" to visit India, which he considers an "indispensable" partner of the US, later this year, but did not give any dates.
"President Obama has further underscored the importance of India to the United States by promising to make a reciprocal visit to India, most likely later this year," he said.
India is on top of the agenda of the Obama administration, which is reflected in the very fact that the president invited prime minister Manmohan Singh for his presidency's first State Visit in November last year, he said.
Blake said at a time when India, Pakistan and the US "all face the common threat of terrorism", India represents "a model of a tolerant, pluralistic society with a democratic system of government".
"As we look at the web of challenges we face from North Korea to the Middle East and beyond... we see India as a country where increasingly convergent values and interests have allowed us to forge a strategic friendship that benefits both Indians and Americans," Blake said.
On the defence side, he said the bilateral exercise programme continues to grow and strengthen. "We have a robust exercise programme that has enabled us to enhance an already great military-to-military relationship with exercises such as Cope India, Malabar, and Shatrujeet."
"Defence sales are also of great interest to American companies," he said.
"We've already seen some very important defence sales just in the last year or two of C-130Js and P-8 maritime patrol aircraft. The Indian government also recently submitted a Letter of Request for 10 C-17 aircraft worth about USD 2.5 billion. And that's not the end of it," Blake said.
He said there are large numbers of important potential deals, up to USD 18 billion worth of new opportunities that will become available in next several years, most notably the multi-role combat aircraft purchase which by itself is a roughly USD 10 billion sale in which two US firms -- Boeing, headquartered here, and Lockheed Martin -- are competing.
"That the Indians are now considering US manufacturers and US technology to meet their military aircraft requirements — which would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago — is just one measure of how far and how rapidly our relationship is evolving," Blake said.
He also applauded educational reforms being undertaken in India right now and described HRD Minister Kapil Sibal as "a dynamic and creative thinker."
"Prime minister Singh appointed a dynamic and creative thinker to head the ministry of human resource development, basically their education ministry, Kapil Sibal," Blake said.
On the agriculture front, he said India and the US would soon hold their first bilateral Agricultural Dialogue in New Delhi aimed at taking cooperation in the field to a new level.
The dialogue, expected to be held "within a few months", will be a public-private initiative that will consider ways to promote development of rural India, that is largely dependent on farm-related jobs, he said.
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