Lauding the recently concluded G20 Summit in New Delhi, Eric Garcetti, the US ambassador to India, said India has demonstrated its global leadership through the “most successful G20 in the history of the organisation”.

Speaking at the 20th Indo-US Economic Summit organized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, on Tuesday, Garcetti also congratulated India on the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the southern pole of the Moon and said both the countries are now looking at partnerships in the commercial space segment.

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He also stressed on sharing of technology and co-development of technologies in sectors, such as defence, in which India and the US already have strong ties.

The theme of the 20th Indo-US Economic Summit is “Sharing ideas and potential for a sustainable partnership between India and the US for the next 25 years.”

Speaking at the summit, Garcetti said there is a need to have a more ambitious approach towards Indo-US bilateral relations. Both sides should strive for moving towards a frictionless bilateral relationship, he said.

“The goal that we should be setting for each other is how can we be more ambitious. Not just settle for another deal, not just settle for as we have done in the last few months bringing down the retaliatory tariffs and trade disputes between our countries. That’s not good enough. I think we need to close our eyes and dream of what this relationship can be like, even more than we would imagine today. How can we create a frictionless relationship?” Garcetti said.

Noting that there is need for doing away with even the smallest of friction between the two countries in terms of trades, he called for reduction of tariffs and creation of a more predictable regulatory environment.

Garcetti also pitched for a robust agriculture trade between India and the US.

“This is a great agricultural country and so is the United States. We want India to be one of our top three markets in the world. Here, the productivity in dairy and other areas has levelled off,” he said.

On the occasion, Dr Lalit Bhasin, IACC’s summit chair and national president, said, “I pointed out to the US ambassador to ease travel to the US (as) we are facing problems in getting visas. The ambassador assured us that it is being looked into.”