Key US official hails close coordination with India

The United States (US) and India are engaging with each other on geopolitical issues concerning the Pacific Islands as part of what Washington sees as encouraging levels of close coordination with New Delhi on the Indo-Pacific arena, a top White House official has said.

- Prashant Jha

The remarks come at a time both are accelerating their engagement over multiple issues of mutual strategic interest, especially in the context of China's manoeuvring in the region.

Kurt Campbell, the White House Indo-Pacific coordinator and deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, said that US looks forward to working "more closely" with India in the Pacific, and added that he had been "gratified" by the close coordination.

Campbell, often considered one of the key architects of the US's Indo-Pacific thrust and the Quad alliance from his perch in the National Security Council, also acknowledged that there is a lack of a strategic approach from the US towards the Indian Ocean island states which faces some of the same challenges as Pacific Islands - and there are efforts underway to remedy that.

Admitting that the US has to "step up its game" in the Pacific Islands - a recent security understanding between the Solomon Islands and China has triggered concern in Washington DC and led to an avalanche of diplomatic initiatives to woo the strategically located islands - Campbell said that the US has "strategic, moral, political, humanitarian" interests in the region.