New Delhi: US Ambassador Julianne Smith has said that if India wants, the doors of NATO are open for it for more engagement.
Speaking on NATO and strengthening ties in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, Smith said the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is ready to engage more with India if it is interested.
The US NATO ambassador, however, stressed that at present there are no plans from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to expand it into a broader global military alliance.
In a virtual press conference, Julianne Smith said, “The NATO alliance is open for more engagement if India wants. Currently, NATO has 40 different partners from around the world and each has a different individual partnership. Many countries seek different levels of political engagement.”
Sometimes countries take a lot of interest in inter-operability and standardisation questions, they are different countries, but if India takes an interest in moving forward, the message that has already been sent to it is that the NATO alliance is definitely open to greater engagement with it,” she said.