THE House Foreign Affairs Committee, in association with Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, organized a congressional reception to welcome Arun K. Singh on his taking over as India’s Ambassador to the United States at the Capitol Hill on June 10. The event was hosted by the Chairman of House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Ed Royce (Republican-California), and ranking member Congressman Elliot Engel (Democrat-New York), together with co-chairs of the Caucus, Congressman George Holding (Republican- North Carolina) and Congressman Ami Bera (Democrat-California).
The event was attended by a number of members of US House of Representatives, leaders of the Indian American community from across the United States, members of the media, the Think Tank community and academia.
In their welcome remarks, both Royce and Engel spoke warmly of Singh’s contribution in promoting India-U.S. relations. Royce welcomed Singh back to Washington, D.C., and reiterated his commitment to promoting India-US ties. Engel called India and US as ‘natural partners’ with common strategic and geo-political outlook. Holding called the India-US relationship as the founding relationship of 21st century and advocated strengthening bilateral economic ties. Bera called the relationship ‘non partisan’ and recognized that the diaspora brings vibrancy to the bilateral ties.
Singh, in his remarks, thanked Royce, Engel, Holding and Bera for their welcome and for their leadership at the House Foreign Affairs Committee and at the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. He noted the important contributions made by the Caucus to bring the people and governments of the two countries closer, and described the bipartisan support for India-U.S. relations in the U.S. Congress as a source of strength for the India-U.S. strategic partnership that now spans almost all dimensions of human endeavour.
Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans is a bipartisan group of members in the US House of Representatives. It was founded in 1993 by the Congressman Frank Pallone from New Jersey and Congressman Bill McCollum from Florida and is the largest single country caucus in the House of Representatives.
