The United States Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, visited Assam as part of his familiarization tour of India. During his first visit to the state, the Ambassador drew attention to several key aspects of the now re-energized U.S. – India partnership.
Ambassador Verma paid a courtesy call on Governor P.B Acharya and had positive discussions about the future of U.S.-India relations and Assam’s place in it.
Further, the U.S. Ambassador interacted with regional business leaders and remarked on U.S. and Northeast India business connections at a program hosted by Indian Chamber of Commerce – North East Chapter, which is the American Business Corner partner of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Services. Underlining the growth in the U.S-India trade Ambassador Verma assured them, “Bilateral trade has reached $103 billion, on the way to $500 billion. We secured new deals in defense and energy; and we are working hard on increasing bilateral investment flows between our two nations.”
On Wednesday, advocating the cause of women in science in a special address at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship, the Ambassador remarked, “Both the U.S. and India share a common goal of promoting, enabling, and retaining women in science, and increasing girls’ and women’s access to science and technology.”
Ambassador Verma also toured the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati campus and addressed over 500 undergraduate students, research scholars and key faculty members on stronger U.S.-India education partnerships. Speaking to the students he said, “I now refer to our partnership as a “Strategic Plus”, with the “plus” indicating a broader geographic zone of cooperation and engagement in more areas than ever before.”
Ambassador Verma also included a stop at the famous Kamakhya temple during this trip.
