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"India is a nuclear power. There are a lot of reasons we ought to engage with India, and we are going to," Armitage told a media round table in Sydney (Australia) on Friday.
"It would be unnatural for the world's oldest democracy to not have a more reasonable, in fact robust, relationship with the world's largest democracy, India."
"It would be unreasonable for a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democratic federation like the US not to have a more robust relationship with a multi-ethnic, multi-religious democratic federation like India. We've got everything going for it," Armitage added.
To what extent the increased engagement with India should be interpreted as an attempt to establish a strategic counterweight to China, he said "You should put zero value on that (the China connection)."
"I think whenever you try to establish a relationship with a country based on a third country, then you are doomed to failure. It is not a sustainable relationship. It is not something you can build on," Armitage said.
He showered lavish praise on Indian-Americans and said the community had become a helpful factor in American politics.
"We have a very vibrant and active Indian-American population, very high-tech oriented, very organised, very politically astute. They have become a very helpful and new factor in American politics," he said.
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