NEW DELHI, May 14: The United States and Britain on Friday expressed their support for India's new government, likely to be headed by the Congress party, as London asserted that New Delhi would remain its key strategic ally.
The UK-India bilateral relationship, which grew to new level in the last few years is important for the UK, and India will remain a key strategic ally, a spokesman of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office was quoted by the PTI as saying in London.
Reacting to the electoral verdict a day after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee submitted his resignation, he said: We expect Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi to form the new government.
We welcome the fact that 380 million people voted in the largest democratic election in the world which was largely peaceful. People have expressed their will through a legitimate democratic process that has been respected fully by India's political leadership.
From Washington, PTI quoted US State Department spokesman as congratulating the Congress Party.
We congratulate the Congress party on their success in the election, Mr Boucher said on Thursday.
Lauding Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for accepting the results, he said: Once again, we are shown how strong and how deep are the roots of Indian democracy.
Mr Boucher said the United States has a very strong bilateral relationship with India and we look forward to working with the new government when it's formed.
Asked about India-Pakistan relations in the wake of Mr Vajpayee's exit, Mr Boucher said Washington would keep encouraging the countries to settle their differences through dialogue.
We have always supported resolution of differences between India and Pakistan through dialogue. We have made extensive efforts to try to assist them in lowering of tension. We think that does reflect the desire of people in both countries for peace, so we will continue to assist that process and encourage that process, he said.
Mr Boucher said whenever US Secretary of State Colin Powell visited India, he had talked with Congress President Sonia Gandhi about the peace with Pakistan.-J.N
