WASHINGTON: The US State Department has said that sky is the limit for India-US relations and predicted that this relationship will continue to grow under the next administration as well.

At a news briefing in Washington, the department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner pointed out that the outgoing Obama administration had strengthened this relationship in the last eight years, which has now become a key global partnership.

“I think in terms of where that relationship goes, the sky’s the limit, both economically, security, what you have,” said the US official while responding to a question about US-India ties.

“I think the new administration was clearly recognising — you’ve even seen some comments from the president-elect — the importance that India plays not just in the region but in the global mix,” he said referring to Donald Trump’s recent elections, expressing the desire to stay engaged with India.

Underlining India’s importance for the United States, Mr Toner said that it was “resource-rich” and was playing an outsized role in global issues.”

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2017