CDA Andrews remarks as delivered
July 3, New Delhi: Good evening and thank you all for coming out to celebrate the United States of America’s Independence Day! I’m so honored to celebrate our nation’s birthday with you tonight. I would like to offer special thanks to key guests who are with us tonight. Honorable Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, thank you for joining us and representing the strength of the U.S.-India relationship. Thank you to Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bethany Morrison for coming all the way from Washington and supporting the work of our embassy and the bilateral relationship. Accompanying her are Riley Barnes, Special Advisor to the State Department’s Under Secretary for Political Affairs, and Shireen Singh, India Desk Officer. Thank you for joining us.
To our sponsors: Thank you! This event wouldn’t be possible without your generous support. I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the screens with the names/logos of our sponsors. I also invite each of you to visit the sponsor booths to experience firsthand tasty American foods and other products from our sponsors. And, of course, a huge thank you to our great embassy team that put this event together. Alex White and Mike Cramer, thank you for organizing and guiding the team that made everything possible tonight. Well done. And a special thank you to all the volunteers working tonight’s event!
On a personal note, I want to acknowledge two very important guests who are here with me today. My wife, Sara Craig, and our daughter, Dagny, who are visiting me over the summer from our home in Virginia. During his campaign for president back in 2000, George W. Bush used to say that “Behind every successful man stands a very surprised woman.” To the extent that I have been successful, no one in this room is more surprised than Sara, and I owe any success to her. My friends, tomorrow we mark 249 years since our nation’s founders signed the Declaration of Independence, and we’re gearing up for an even bigger celebration of our 250th birthday next year. For Americans, however, Independence Day is not only a cause for celebration, but also for introspection.
On July 4, 1776, our founders set our nation on a path of freedom and toward a new system of governance, one where, as they wrote, government leaders “deriv[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed.” In other words, the government works for the people, not the other way around. As we Americans all learned in elementary school, Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of that revolutionary document, the Declaration of Independence. He and the other authors of the Constitution applied the ideas and principles of the Enlightenment to create a novel system of democratic governance that balances power among three coequal branches.
I have long felt a personal connection to Thomas Jefferson. Many years ago, I had the privilege to study law at his “academical village,” as he called it – the University of Virginia. In that institution that Jefferson designed, built, and founded, the enlightenment lives on, reflecting the energy and creativity of our nation’s birth. My personal commitment to diplomacy and the rule of law was forged in Mr. Jefferson’s University. (Shout out to VN Dalmia and UVA Alumni Club.) As that original American idea of democratic governance has gradually spread throughout the world, there is no greater place to celebrate the birth of the world’s oldest democracy than right here in the world’s largest democracy.
As President Trump and Prime Minister Modi said during the Prime Minister’s visit to the White House earlier this year, they are both “leaders of sovereign and vibrant democracies that value freedom, the rule of law, human rights, and pluralism.” The bonds between our nations are built upon the deep connections between our peoples, yet they extend all the way up to our nations’ leaders. And it has been a busy year for high level bilateral meetings among our nations’ leaders. You will recall Foreign Minister Jaishankar attended President Trump’s inauguration and met with Secretary Rubio on his first day in office. On that same day, Secretary Rubio hosted his first diplomatic meeting with the Quad Foreign Ministers and then hosted them again earlier this year. In between those meetings, our Director of National Intelligence visited India, and we have welcomed Commerce Minister Goyal and other Indian officials to the United States several times. And, of course, we were delighted to host Vice President Vance and his family this April further testament to the strength of our ties. Clearly, India is a top priority for the Trump Administration, and I anticipate even more high-level engagement in the months to come.
You can also see how this administration prioritizes India by the number of initiatives we’ve launched this year alone – including the COMPACT to elevate our partnership and the TRUST initiative to deepen our collaboration on strategic technology, among many others. Just a few days ago, we saw U.S. company Axiom Space take U.S., Indian, and other astronauts from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station. In the coming weeks, we will be excited to celebrate the launch of the NISAR satellite, a collaboration between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to send a cutting-edge satellite into space to map the surface of our planet. But our two great countries also have a robust economic relationship. In February, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi announced a bold new goal called “Mission 500,” to more than double our current annual bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
As you know, we are deep in ambitious talks to unlock new trade opportunities for both sides and eventually conclude a historic Bilateral Trade Agreement. America and India have never been closer. Our people-to-people ties grow by the day, fueled in large part by an Indian diaspora in America that is now estimated to be more than 4 million people. So tonight, I invite you all to celebrate the friendship and deep partnership between our nations. Please enjoy the American cuisine and beverages we’re featuring and explore ways our two great countries can become even closer partners. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Happy Independence Day! And now it is my distinct honor and privilege to introduce our distinguished guest of honor, Minister Puri, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
