SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good afternoon, everyone. Please take a seat.
Prime Minister Modi, Evan and I are honored to welcome you to the State Department. You're here in the Benjamin Franklin Room, named after America's very first diplomat. He signed our first treaty. He charted the Gulf Stream. He helped pioneer electricity. He gave us our ethos of self-governance, and virtually none of this did he do while sober. (Laughter.) But I don't think that's going to be an issue for us today.
To our extraordinary co-host, Vice President Harris, it is always special to have you here at the department. And it's always great to be joined by our Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and friends from across the administration and from the United States Congress. And let me also acknowledge our James Beard-winning guest chef, Meherwan Irani, who is here with us today. (Applause.) And you should know that Meherwan credits his mother as his earliest culinary inspiration, and I think we're all about to be very inspired by what she gave to him and he's now about to give to us.
It's been 30 years, Prime Minister, since you visited this country through a State Department exchange program. You said that experience showed you, and I quote, "The dreams of the American people and the boldness of their ambitions." In your address to our Congress yesterday, you highlighted the boldness of India's own ambitions, the remarkable advances that your country has made in recent years: expanding free medical care, empowering women, harnessing clean energy. The positive impact in the lives of the Indian people is immeasurable, and it will be lasting.
And it underscores that these aspirations for a better future are ones that we share and ones that we depend upon each other to help realize. That's why when President Eisenhower became the first American president to visit India, he told your parliament that "the welfare of America is bound up with the welfare of India." Over the past several decades, the United States and India have been advancing the vision of greater interdependence, brought closer by administrations of different parties in both of our countries. Having worked for President Biden for over 20 years, I know that his belief in this partnership is longstanding, and his commitment to delivering on its promise is unwavering.
And during the last two and a half years, we've transformed the relationship between our countries. We are working closer together on more issues than ever before. From semiconductors to space, from education to food security. The energy, ambition, and potential of our cooperation is boundless.
The United States and India have become, as the prime minister has put it, indispensable partners. And that partnership, President Biden has said, is the defining relationship of the 21st century. Together we're promoting greater peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe; combatting disease; responding to natural disasters; strengthening the maritime security; standing up for the principles at the heart of the United Nations Charter.
We're working to safeguard our planet for future generations, developing affordable solar panels and sustainable aviation fuels. We're driving opportunity and innovation, from the entrepreneurs powering our economies to the U.S. companies investing in India and vice versa. And the cutting edge research that we're jointly advancing, from quantum to artificial intelligence, is helping to sustain our technological edge and shaping a digital future that safeguards democratic values.
Here in the United States, India is part of our daily lives. We enjoy Jhumpa Lahiri's novels over samosas. (Laughter.) We laugh at the comedies of Mindy Kaling. We dance to the beats of Dhiljit at Coachella. And yes, Mr. Prime Minister, and I can say this from personal experience, we keep ourselves more or less fit and healthy doing yoga. (Laughter and applause.)
The United States is endlessly enriched by our thriving Indian diaspora. Doctors, teachers, engineers, business leaders, public servants, almost all of whom, it seemed, were on the White House lawn yesterday to greet you. (Laughter.) And so many of whom are here with us today. Leaders, of course, like Vice President Harris, whose mother came from - (applause) - Tamil Nadu, coming here to help unlock the secrets of cancer. Or diplomats right here at the State Department, where a man whose father came to America with just a bus ticket and $14 in his pocket rose to become the first United States Indian American ambassador to India. And today, Richard Rahul Verma serves as the deputy secretary of state for Management and Resources. (Cheers and applause.) The highest-ranking Indian American official in the department's history.
And, Mr. Prime Minister, that ultimately is maybe the strongest bond that unites us. As you glimpsed in your earliest travels here, whether we call it the American dream, whether we call it the Indian dream, whether it's the son of an immigrant from Jalandhar rising through the State Department or a tea seller becoming prime minister, our people believe profoundly in opportunity, that no matter who we are or where we come from, we can make something more of ourselves.
