Indo-Pacific region needs stability, democratic model of governance: US Ambassador Kenneth Juster

New Delhi [India], January 5 : The Indo-Pacific region needs stability, leadership and a democratic model for development that does not threaten the sovereignty of other countries, US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster has said and noted that a strong and democratic India is an important partner to promote peace and prosperity.
In his farewell policy address on 'Ambition and Achievement in the US-India Partnership', he said that the Indo-Pacific is particularly significant for US-India relationship because "it recognises the reality that India and Indian ocean are inextricably tied to East Asia and Pacific".
He said that the Indo-Pacific region encompasses the fastest and largest growing economies in the world.
"More than 50 per cent of international trade passes through its waters. The region is rich in natural resources and it is fast becoming the centre of gravity of the evolving international system. Indeed, the tectonic plates of that system have shifted, marked especially by the rise of China and more recently by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which has devastated health, the economy in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere," he said.
The US Ambassador said that in the past four years, the United States and India have shown the ambition to have a free and stable Indo-Pacific.
"The concept of Indo-Pacific has been many years in the making. It is in the past four years that our countries have shown the ambition to turn it into reality," he said.
Kenneth Juster said that in 2017 President Trump described the US vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific "as sovereign and independent nations with diverse cultures can prosper side by side and thrive in freedom and peace".