USA elected Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. as its 46th President in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, held in November and will take oath in January 2021. His deputy Kamala Harris was elected as first Woman Vice President in the history of the U.S.and a first person of Indian-African origin. Both of them are great achievers in the face of enormous challenges. Joe Biden, as he is called, is a devoutly religious person with Himalayan patience, as his aids describe him. He has fought and won one of the world’s most challenging Presidential elections, despite many personal tragedies, health struggles and not to talk of the attacks on his personal life and family. The resilience shown by the U.S. President-Elect is expected to have a rub-off effect on the policies that the administration will roll out from next year. No less has been the challenges overcome by U.S.Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. She has, on many occasion, highlighted the fear, dismissal, humiliation and challenges that woman, mostly the black, south Asian undergo in the U.S. and the world as well. However, she describes her success as a representative of those women who have suffered, struggled and paved the way for her to become Vice President of USA. Not only that but, she also inspires many young girls, to believe that they can. Together, Biden-Harris team is perhaps one of the most mature leaders of a generation in the U.S. politics. The two have a few immediate tasks cut out that they have also spelt out in their election result acceptance speeches.

On top of the priority, they would be dealing with the pandemic. Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi has congratulated the U.S. President-Elect and Vice President-Elect through his following tweets.

It is expected that India-U.S. bilateral relations, that have developed into a “global strategic partnership”, will have shared democratic values and increasing convergence of interests on bilateral, regional and global issues. T h e e m p h a s i s p l a c e d b y t h e Government in India on development and good governance has created opportunity to reinvigorate bilateral ties and enhance cooperation under the motto — “Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go”, and “Sanjha Prayas, Sab ka Vikas”: Shared Effort, Progress for All, adopted during the first two summits of Prime Minister Modi and the then U.S. President Obama in September 2014 and January 2015 respectively.

Regular exchange of high-level political visits has provided sustained momentum to bilateral cooperation. In contrast, the wide-ranging and everexpanding dialogue architecture has established a long-term framework for India-U.S.A. engagement. Today, the India-America bilateral cooperation is broad-based and multisectoral, covering trade and investment, defence and security, education, science and technology, cybersecurity, hightechnology, civil nuclear energy, space technology and applications, clean energy, environment, agriculture and health. Dynamic people-to-people interaction and support across the political spectrum in both countries nurture our bilateral relationship.

The 3.5million-plus strong IndianAmerican community is an important ethnic group in the U.S., accounting for about 1% of the total population in the country. Indian-American community inludes alarge number of professionals, business entrepreneurs and educationalists with increasing influence in the society. With two Indian-Americans occupying highlevel posts and several representatives of the people, the Indian diaspora has assimilated into their adopted country and is acting as a catalyst to forge closer and stronger ties between India and the U.S. The two countries have been working together to facilitate the travel of their respective citizens. To this end, an MOU was signed in June 2016 to facilitate India’s joining of the Global Entry Programme for expedited immigration for eligible Indian citizens at the U.S. airports. The future relations between the two countries have a sound foundation. The new administration will look to build on it. “My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States. If that occurs, the world will be safer,” Biden said in an interview in December 2006. He certainly has the opportunity to make that dream become a reality during the next four years.