Asserting that the long due US-India mini trade deal should be on top of the agenda of the incoming Biden administration, US India Business Council president Nisha Desai Biswal has said that the ties between the two nations continued to be “strong and vibrant” and 2021 will provide important opportunities to broaden and deepen this partnership.

India and the US are negotiating a deal to iron out differences on trade issues to boost economic ties.

“The US-India relationship has continued to be strong and vibrant. That has been the case in the prior administration, in the current administration and I’m confident in the next one as well,” USIBC president Biswal said in an interview on Thursday, noting that the year 2020 started with the “strong and robust” visit of President Donald Trump to India.

Despite the fact that the US and India weren’t able to see a mini trade deal launched, they did see that the robust strategic partnership was continuing to be advanced throughout the year, she said.

Be it the defence ties, close co-ordination between the US and India on regional and global challenges, the third 2+2 ministerial or further strengthening of the QUAD grouping (India, the US, Japan and Australia) in the Indo-Pacific, the bilateral has continued to strengthen, Biswal noted.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the same level of progress on the trade front. That is something that both countries will need to reflect on...2021 perhaps (would) provide some important opportunities to broaden the US-India partnership, continue the deep strategic convergence and broaden the partnership to reflect on some additional areas of opportunity,” she said.

Biswal, who in her capacity as the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia was one of the prime drivers of the India-US ties during the second term of the Obama administration, observed that the Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance that the two nations work together not only for the benefit of their own people but globally as well.