Interview: India and the US are always stronger working together, says US Ambassador Eric Garcetti

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Climate action and green energy are some of the biggest pillars of the US-India alliance. What is the future of this partnership? To talk about this and many more contours of the bilateral ties, CNBC-TV18’s Parikshit Luthra spoke with the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti.

Here are the edited excerpts:

Q: What are some of the key pillars of Indo-US cooperation on climate and clean energy?

India and the United States are always stronger together when we’re working on climate. At the recent COP in Dubai, we came together and are putting in a $1 billion fund, half of it from the United States government and half of it from the Government of India to accelerate green infrastructure and energy investments here in India. And vice versa we’re seeing investments from Indian companies $1.5 billion to do solar manufacturing, to do elements for batteries for electric vehicles, Indian companies in the United States. If you told somebody 20 years ago, that Indian companies would be creating jobs in America, leading in technology, they would have said, are you sure?

Q: What are some of the opportunities that you see for US investments in the renewable energy space in India in the next few years?

About 10% of all the business that we do in the world is in India, the next biggest country is about a quarter of that globally. We love India, and we want to see more and more green deals. If you’re a company, a community, a state government, central government, that is looking for accelerating financing, come to us because we are open for business, and we love working in India.

Q: How can Indian companies take advantage of incentives in the United States under the Inflation Reduction Act? 

The Inflation Reduction Act or IRA is the largest piece of green legislation in world history, not just American history. And it doesn’t discriminate. You don’t have to be an American company. You just have to be willing to invest in America. And by the way, you can export from America to the rest of the world. It works for jobs outside of the United States as well as inside the US.

Q:  On concerns about the dumping of cheap and low-quality solar energy components, how can this alliance between India and the US on green energy benefit not just the two countries but the Indo-Pacific and the world?

Every country benefits when we have a diverse supply chain and multiple options. It’s part of the reason that I’m here as an ambassador, I want to see India become not only a great domestic market but a manufacturing centre for the region and the world. We need more options in the United States. And we see the success of this in healthcare for instance, where 40% of our generic pharmaceuticals come from India, that’s a positive for the health of the people of Los Angeles. And in the future, if India can be not just a great creator to green sectors inside the country, but an exporter of those products, those vehicles, those solar cells, those fuels of the future, that’s a good thing for the entire world, which is why the US is so invested.

Q: The Indian government has recently agreed to lower tariffs on imported electric vehicles. Elon Musk’s visit has been postponed but on the whole, how do you see this policy to attract global investments including the likes of Tesla?

The electric vehicle policy is great. It’s smart, it will be great for domestic as well as for foreign investors who are trying to build an electric vehicle infrastructure. I know that Indian manufacturers can compete and win not just here, but probably in the future by exporting to the rest of the world. But vice versa, for a lot of companies that we are looking at here, they said give us a few years where you don’t tax at this super high rate the vehicles we make today, and we promise to little by little work the supply chains so that we can make them here in India tomorrow. That’s smart. It’s keeping the leverage and demanding – you give something to India, but it’s also not stopping the investment before it even happens.

Q: About the current election process that is underway in India, now we’ve seen a lot of criminal action against certain opposition leaders, this was a cause for concern. Was the summoning of the US Deputy Chief of Mission unprecedented? And have US concerns been addressed?

We are very excited that the democratic aspirations of almost a billion voters are being realised in what is the biggest vote anywhere in the world. We know that elections are complex things. There’s always rhetoric that comes out, there’s always complicated ways of getting voters. Here in India, I’m always inspired by people who hike up for two days to a remote village or find one person living on top of a mountain to make sure that he can vote. But we will always raise concerns that we have, but we’re I think in awe of the entire democratic process as it happens.

Q: The probe into the attempted assassination of a Sikh activist, how satisfied are you with developments on the investigations so far?

So far the Indian government has met the thresholds that we have put forward and we have collaborated with them on what was a very serious matter. There’s a criminal case going on. So I’d refer specific questions to our Department of Justice. But I think for any country, we look to a friend and a partner and say, if there are accusations or evidence of something, we expect it to be taken seriously not just by us, but also by India. So far, the government of India has done just that and we are satisfied with the progress thus far.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow