WASHINGTON, Aug 12: The US State Department has said that America’s rapidly growing relationship with India is no cause of alarm for New Delhi’s neighbours. Department’s Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli told a briefing in Washington that instead of being alarmed, India’s neighbours should look at the Indo-US relationship as holding the “promise of greater stability (and) greater prosperity for the entire region”.

“We certainly do not see any cause for concern on the part of India’s neighbours for the relationship that is developing between the United States and India,” said Mr Ereli when asked whether the tie-up might cause concern for India’s neighbours.

“The way to look at it, frankly, is that the closer the integration, the greater the synergies between individual countries in a region, the greater the benefits for the region as a whole.”

The Indo-US ties, he said, would also increase trade within the South Asian region and would lead to “increased employment, increased productivity, and increased income”.

Mr Ereli said: “When you’ve got an economic power, like India, which India undeniably is working together with another world economic power, the United States, to maximise scientific research, to enhance agriculture— and these are parts of our developing relationship— there are going to be ripple effects that have a positive impact on countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.”

The State Department spokesman advised South Asian nations to view the growing relations between the US and India as “a forward movement” that “not only serves as an example and will help to support closer ties between countries of the region and the United States, but it also has a very real economic impact.”

India, he said, was a rising power and the best way to deal with rising powers was to integrate them into partnerships, international institutions and international cooperative ventures, “because that channels the energy and the impulses of a developing power in positive, mutually supportive, mutually beneficial directions”.

This desire to integrate India with the world economy, said Mr Ereli, formed “the philosophical premise” of Washington’s policies towards New Delhi.