Washington: India and the US are drawing closer and the trend is likely to continue, whichever party is in power in Washington and New Delhi, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Don Kemp said yesterday (Sep 10, 2004).

He, however, pointed out that there were still some problems due to the fact that India was not a member of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

On the issue of outsourcing, he said it had become a two-way street.

At a meeting of Indian Parliamentary and Business delegation and US officials, organised by the South Asia Studies Centre of the Johns Hopkins University, Kemp said he did not view the current issue of outsourcing as a problem between the two countries.

The US is a very free economy and the companies make their own decisions independent of the Government, he said adding that the outsourcing to Bangalore is a fact economics.

There are job losses in the US but there are a lot of reasons for them, not just outsourcing, he said.

Indian businessmen also pointed out that old ideas about multinationals, when they were all from the US and other developed countries, are no longer relevant. In the global economy, some of the Indian companies have also become multinationals, they said.