India-US ties 'very personal' for me, says US Second Lady Usha Vance

US Second Lady Usha Vance has termed the India-US relationship as one that is “very personal” for her, underlining that this is a time of “great opportunity” for the bilateral relations that have “ebbed and flowed at times”.

“Well, of course, it is a very personal relationship because I have family members who are in India, and I have many family members here in the United States, and I did grow up visiting India and visiting those family members, and they grew up visiting me,” Vance said during a fireside chat here on Monday at the eighth edition of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit.

"So that's always been a relationship that I've personally thought of as very important,” she said at the event attended by lawmakers, prominent government, business and community leaders from the Indian diaspora and the US.

She was responding to a question on her personal perspective about the US-India relationship during the fireside chat conducted by USISPF Chairman and Founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, John Chambers.

Vance said, “The way that I think about it more broadly is I think this is a time of great opportunity. And I think if my husband were here, he'd say the same thing. “Obviously, the United States and India - the relationship has ebbed and flowed at times. There are times when one country's needs and one country's goals are different from the other. “But right now, I think, in the next four years and in the future, the fact that there is this established Indian-American population here, and so many people in India who know the country and know the people who are here doing great things, having great opportunities,” she said.

Vance recalled that when the Second Family - Vice President J D Vance, herself and their three young children, visited India in April, “I was struck by the number of people who came up to me to say how much they loved our country, how they visited family, how they visited just for pleasure, that they were hoping for a close relationship looking forward. And I think these personal ties actually really have something to do with it.”

At the leadership summit, the USISPF also presented the 2025 Global Leadership Awards to IBM Chairman Arvind Krishna, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Hitachi Executive Chairman Toshiaki Higashihara “for their outstanding contributions in strengthening the US-India-Japan economic partnership.” This is the first time that business leaders from the QUAD grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the US will be honoured at the USISPF summit.

The USISPF is an independent not-for-profit institution focused on strengthening the US-India partnership.