U.S.- India Relations Spark Lively Conversations

On Friday, February 4th, Asiance attended an American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) President Herman Pirchner, Jr. and AFPC’s Kraemer Strategy Fellow Jeff M. Smith, an expert on South Asian affairs, discussion centered on United States and India’s foreign policy, Pakistani-based terrorism, and Sino-Indian tensions at a cocktail reception and dinner, cohosted by Apple Core Hotels and the Consulate General of India (3 E. 64th St.).

Specific issues raised by Smith in his speech included:

• The state of the U.S.-India relationship, including challenges and areas for optimism;
• Pakistan’s deteriorating security situation, its relationship to Islamist militancy, and the implications for the U.S. and India;
• China’s increasingly assertive foreign policy and the implications for the U.S. and India.

“The volatile political and security situation in South Asia has created an unstable environment in which a major crisis could erupt at any time,” reveals Smith. “AFPC wants both Washington policymakers and the leaders of America’s private sector to be as well-informed as possible. There is a connection between a knowledgeable citizenry and good policy.”

AFPC, a D.C.-based, non-profit think tank, provides primary source information, as well as policy options, to persons and organizations that make or influence the national security and foreign policies of the United States.

This event’s mission was to strengthen AFPC’s broader outreach to the private sector leaders and enhance the non-profit organization’s vision for a stronger U.S.-Indian partnership to promote shared values and interests and confront common challenges.

New York hotel chain Apple Core Hotels co-sponsored the event because of the company’s interest in geo-political issues, particularly terrorism, that affect both the U.S. and India. “The matter engages us as an owner operator of hotels in a city that suffered the most devastating terrorist attack in recent history, where the perpetrators all had connections principally to two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan,” says Vijay Dandapani, President and COO of Apple Core Hotels. “That it is of continuing relevance can be seen from the failed Times Square bombing of last summer, since one of our hotels is mere feet away from where the SUV was abandoned.”

(Photo above: Aroon Shivdasani – Executive Director of the Indo-American Arts Council, Jeff Smith – Kraemer Strategy Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, Herman Pirchner – President of the American Foreign Policy Council, Jim Luce – Luce Foundation and Huffington Post, John Lee – Federico Investments)