India Named Key Partner in US National Security Strategy 2025: Strengthening Global Strategic Partnership

The strategy document explicitly highlights the need for enhanced commercial relations with India.

New Delhi:

The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday welcomed the US National Security Strategy 2025 report, emphasizing India's strategic significance to Washington and recognizing New Delhi as a crucial partner in global security and strategic initiatives.

During a regular media briefing, MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal noted that the US report identifies India as a key partner in their bilateral comprehensive global strategic partnership.

"The report reflects and underscores the importance that the United States attaches to India as a key partner. We maintain a multifaceted relationship with the United States. Both nations enjoy a comprehensive global strategic partnership and continue working to strengthen these ties further," Jaiswal stated.

The White House released the US National Security Strategy 2025 last week, positioning India as a critical partner and indicating Washington's intention to deepen cooperation with New Delhi across economic, technological, and defense sectors.

The strategy document explicitly calls for improved commercial relations with India and encourages New Delhi to "contribute to Indo-Pacific security" through continued participation in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) alongside Australia, Japan, and the United States.

"We must continue to improve commercial (and other) relations with India," the document declares, highlighting a significant diplomatic emphasis on the bilateral relationship.

The strategy identifies the Indo-Pacific as "already the source of almost half the world's GDP" and frames the region as among "the next century's key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds."

US officials have expressed their intention to collaborate with treaty allies and partners—whose combined economies total USD 65 trillion—to counter what the document describes as "predatory economic practices" in the region.

India, with its expanding economy and strategic position, features prominently in this calculation. The administration has emphasized technology cooperation, particularly in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and defense technologies, as areas for enhanced partnership, and reaffirms the US commitment to quadrilateral cooperation through the Quad, which has emerged as a key diplomatic and security framework in the Indo-Pacific.

Regarding bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation, Jaiswal highlighted the recently concluded 21st meeting of the India-US Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism (CT), describing it as a critical element of the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership.

The MEA Spokesperson noted that during the meeting, held on December 3, both sides strongly condemned the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam as well as the recent terror incident near Delhi's iconic Red Fort on November 10.

Both nations renewed their commitment to multilateral cooperation against terrorism at the UN, within the Quad framework, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and other international forums.

"We had the 21st meeting of the India-US counter-terrorism working group meeting on December 3. We've provided a comprehensive readout of all discussions as part of this CT dialogue, which is very important and has been ongoing for several years. Both sides attach high importance to counter-terrorism cooperation. It is an essential element of our comprehensive global strategic partnership with the United States," Jaiswal explained.

"The two sides strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam and the recent terror attack in Delhi. Both nations renewed their commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism, including at the UN, within the Quad format, as well as in the Financial Action Task Force and several other multilateral forums where we discuss these aspects," he added.

Previously, the MEA stated in a Saturday statement that during the JWG, India and the US unequivocally condemned terrorism in all forms and manifestations, including cross-border terrorism, and renewed their commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation in countering terrorism within the UN, Quad, and the Financial Action Task Force.

Both sides called for additional designations of ISIS and al-Qa'ida affiliates, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and their proxy groups, supporters, sponsors, financiers, and backers under the UN 1267 sanctions regime to ensure their members face a global asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo.

"Both sides emphasized that confronting terrorism requires concerted action in a sustained and comprehensive manner. Against this backdrop, they renewed their commitment to strengthening multilateral cooperation in counter-terrorism, including in the UN, Quad, and the Financial Action Task Force. The two sides called for additional designations of terrorist organizations and their proxies under the UN 1267 sanctions regime. Underscoring the growing convergence between India and the United States on counterterrorism, the Indian side thanked the U.S. Department of State for designating The Resistance Front, a proxy of LeT, as both a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist," the statement concluded.