You and welcome to Hudson Institute. I am the president and ceo and am delighted to welcome everyone here this morning. Today as i think everyone in this room gnomes, we kicked off an incredible week for indiau. S. Relationship. The first meeting with the indian Prime Minister and President Trump. At Hudson Institute we are delighted to host this special to honor the u. S. India partnership and we are grateful to our friends at cspan for covering this event live. Stands at lesse than 1 5 of the u. S. China 648 billion bilateral trade relationship. India is americas ninth largest importer of goods and eight largest export market. The worlds first and the worlds sixth economies respectively, we had Hudson Institute believe there is significant room for growth. The u. S. India relationship is an important one here at the institute. Our Salvation Program directed hussein mbassador has been active on the u. S. India trade relationship, the u. S. India defense relationship, and the u. S. Indiajapan trilateral relationship for sometime now. I was very fortunate to be honored to be included in the briefing with Prime Minister modi during his last visit to washington. Today to have the cochairman of the congressional caucus on india, the representative from North Carolina here to offer keynote remarks. I will introduce him momentarily. We also had an excellent Panel Moderated by an ambassador who will be joined by the president of boeing india and the Governmental Relations leader for transportation at general electric, resident director at north america and the Senior Vice President of. Allow me now to introduce holding. An he grew up in North Carolina, tendon Wake Forest University and clerk for u. S. District Terrence Boyle and practiced law before becoming the u. S. Attorney for North Carolina. From the representative North Carolinas 13th congressional district, sworn in on january 2017 answers on the ways and Means Committee and for our purposes, the cochair of the congressional caucus on india. Without further do, let me introduce representative holding. [applause] all right. Let me get all set up. Thank you very much. A very warm welcome. I first ate the opportunity to offer some remarks. It is kind of odd to be a with a panel of folks who are actual experts on the u. S. India relations and how we can foster deeper bonds he between our two great democracies. Members of congress think we are experts on everything so youll just have to bear with me. I would like to thank the Hudson Institute for hosting these aoceedings this is partnership between india and the United States and it is incredibly important. To expandeking ways the u. S. And their relationship always begins with dialogue and i will be the first to admit that some of these conversations are not always easy. They require healthy doses of honesty from both sides. When i was in india early this year, i believe for the fourth time, there was honesty on the concern of visas. Last week in the ways and Means Committee we had a conversation with the trade ambassador and there was some frank discussion about tariffs and price controls devices. L i firmly believe these are conversations we have to have as they will cement what i believe will be the defining relationship between our two century. For the i am sure there are questions among you about why a congressman from North Carolina is the cochair of the india caucus and how that same member got asked to give these remarks today. So, here is a marker. All politics is local, and in my constituency in North Carolina, i am proud to represent over 20,000 Indian Americans. 90 inside, upwards of North Carolina are owned by indians. Office, i saw a groundswell of support in my district not only for his foridacy but also reinvigorating u. S. India relations and i am talking about Indian Americans who had never been involved in the political ss in the United States and never turned out to an event or sought out a candidate or representative, but as they were modi becoming Prime Minister and interested in this country, it was through talking to them about the bilateral relationship that i found myself very interested in u. S. India policy. So i quickly realized the incredible potential bad existed for an Enduring Partnership between the oldest democracy, largest democracy. I know the oldest, largest talking point is when he gets tossed around a great deal but i think it is instructive to them and at the core of the u. S. India relationships and that is shared values reflected by our believe in democracy and it is this and the peopletopeople connections may 10 by the indianamerican that draws us of many members of congress to be such strong supporters of the bilateral membership. The caucus is relatively active in comparison to other caucuses. As the president and the Prime Minister conclude their firstever inperson meeting, i on the future of our relationship. Strong gains we witnessed over the course of the last few years, we continue our progress forward. This visit should allow each leader to reinforce why this relationship matters, with both sides of the equation expressing concerns they might have , mantoman. And over the course of the trumpmodi era, im sure that there will be differences but im sure they will find significant areas of cooperation from enhanced security for nation to increased Energy Collaboration and more engagement on the economic front. Would find ourselves wellpositioned to seize many of these opportunities. Regardless, it is important to remember that for many Years Congress has been on the front u. S. Indiaiving the relationship forward and i think it will be even more because of the engagement with directors of congress. I can strongly confirm for you today that we have no intention of taking our foot off the gas. Reflecting on just the time i had the privilege of being the cochair i feel we have made a tremendous stride in a number of areas. That is not to say we do not have a lot more work to do but this undertaking was an bothordinary effort from sides of the equation. I struggle when i think of a better way we can strengthen the u. S. India relationship than bible bolstering businesstobusiness tasks. The hand bible story business than by establishing businesstobusiness tasks. To whether the travails that will inevitably arise. There are problems between the worlds six largest economies, justl know the numbers about 115 billion a year. India is only our ninth largest trade importer and the trade deficit remains for some. Nnecessarily high especially as india contains its exceptional growth. I look at these figures and wonder what else can be done to further develop our economic bond. As a member of the trade subcommittee on the ways and Means Committee, i can tell you our nation is certainly no stranger to good discourse as i mentioned earlier, with one and hope springs eternal for continuation of ernest talks on the bilateral investment treaty which has been on the back corner for a while and many of us are urging to get back into the forefront. In the countrys companies i speak with, any trade agreement would be more than welcome to get it off the sidelines and give investors additional confidence that it is a good place for their money. This would also have the added benefit of paving the way for agreements concerning a variety of sectors and industries, specifically in the technology and innovative space i think we have Incredible Opportunity to further integrate our economies, countries, and companies and even governments for Cyber Security. It will be the innovation economy to allow them to overcome challenges over the horizon by unleashing the worlds most innovative companies. Whether you are the worlds most Innovative Company in Silicon Valley or bangalore, these are staffed with incredibly creative people and talented workforces and this collaboration will help the primesist minister in achieving and realizing the positions for programs such as Digital India and the smart cities initiative, efforts the United States government should should also continue to robustly support its expertise and resources. In it where going to be able to foster an ecosystem that enables the u. S. To become an even better partner in technology and in other spaces, i believe we can realize even greater business and economic synergies. We all know about companies that are driven for growth. This panel is part of those countries, i believe that there is also such Great Potential for technology and innovative ownership in the defense and Energy Sectors, some of which are already being realized. I was proud last year during the authorngress to something signed into law that will bolster the ability of our andgovernments to develop share cuttingedge defense technology. This is the language we had put into the nda. It was certainly my aim to encourage additional coproduction and codevelopment to help us Grow Business opportunities and achieve strategic objectives along the ways. I visited india earlier this year and i was with chairman wedlad and the committee and had a lot of discussions on how to have a synergy between making india and America First and that the two philosophies work well together. This is a positive step i believe for the strategic ownership to go further. We need to see this fully realized in the businesstwois this space, not just the sharing and transferring of defense technologies between governments but further acts that we will also continue to see increasing cooperation on these Cyber Security front, which i know is on the mind of everyone here today. The Cyber Security challenges like those in the indian ocean, for example, are the ones we share together and we must tackle together. On the energy front, the united chanceas a significant to help india have stable, Affordable Energy through unleashing new technologies that the extraction and export of le oil and National Natural gas affordable. A very active member of the india caucus is here today, pete wilson, extolling the virtues of National Natural gas terminals in houston which i believe is online now but in the meantime we need to be prepared renewable expand our Energy Sector as these new technologies will increasingly become more foreign to the energy mix of both of our nations. All of this, like our trade relationship stands to contribute to the economic success of both of our countries. More importantly, this type of cooperation stance to bring our two nations closer together which always must be the shared objective at the and of the day. Everything we do must be viewed in the lens of deepening and enriching the critical relationship for both nations and both of our peoples. The United States is a natural partner to india and india has a very natural partner in the United States. Sigh think it is incumbent upon all of us who are engaged on this issue and engaged on furthering our relationship, all of us that believe in the future that this will be a defining relationship for the 21st century. That we keep working hard. That, i thank you all very much. [applause] good afternoon. Hudsone director at the institute. We are grateful for the cooperation and partnership we have received of the transportation of indian industry. Before we get started, i would recognize those who put together this panel. President trump and Prime Minister modi are going to be meeting today. We already heard the congressman with reference to the u. S. India relationship. The defining partnership of the 21st century, a term that has been used i successive president s of the usa in the last couple decades. India is often in the wall street journal. This morning, Prime Minister modi had a comment on the convergence of interest and values of the United States and india. Interests are a conceptual framework and at the end of the day, relationships between nations also have to be measured and they are often measured in terms of how well they do in commercial partnership and in trade and industry, which is why we have brought this panel in today. United states and india the United States is indias second largest bilateral trading partner in goods and india is United States ninth largest bilateral trading goods. It stands at an estimated 114 billion dollars. Companies indian operate in the United States and have created close to 100,000 jobs here. They have invested more than 15 billion and u. S. Companies have invested 28 billion in india just in the last three years. Things. Measure of moving, the u. S. India defense trade was only 200 million in the year 2000. Today it stands at about 15 billion with potential for much more. But, as the Worlds Largest and , there largest economy is comfortable room for further annualand the World Bank Report for 2017, on the eve of doing business globally, ranked india at 130 out of 190 countries. If there were greater income india, perhaps more american countries would companies would head to india. In the area of defense, for example, one of the factors can be american roles and and theons on exporting indian desire for not being dependent purely on defense economics but also being able to make things and india. So where do things stand . Where will we see this relationship go forward . Innovation between the u. S. India promotion partnership. We have an excellent panel today with representatives from all of those who can be identified as fieldjor players in the of innovation and expansion of commercial ties between the United States and india. We have danny obrien from general electric, he is the Government Relations leader for transportation and in this capacity he oversees ges engagement on Public Policy issues. He has served as a longtime advisers in the u. S. Senate where he was to some daft to three chief of staff to three senators. He managed political strategies for these National Leaders and now is a Government Relations leader for ge and will play a crucial role in ges expansion into india. Then, to my right, Senior Vice President based in Silicon Valley, california. In the Angel Funding stage and growth funding i Venture Capital funding that are native to cloud or have a mobile platform. None of this means anything to me because im not as technology conversant as most people might be that i am sure many other people are watching this discussion on cspan will be totally impressed. Across thesformation globe, he also carries that responsibility for north America Business operations which are expanding. James, who is the managing the office responsible for representing the interest in Group Countries and the region. Academic ownerships, sustainability, business eval of men and most of you in this room would say, i would like to be departments of Lockheed Martin and manufacturing the f16 aircraft. Way, he is theis president of india. He is running late, i am sure that is not in any way a commentary on boeing arriving on time most of the time. He is the Vice President of boeing international and teasers as managing director of boeing defense india. He is based in new delhi and he is the most senior and country executive. He does business across three business units. Before we get started on a discussion, a very quick rundown on the four Companies Represented on the panel and their business interests in relation to interest. Ge has doubled its investment in india and delivered 3 million in economic value over the last three years. Investors are mostly manufacturers. Invested 350 million as part of expansion and 2006, have a factory, 200 by dollar factory that employs 13,00015,000 people in india. Boeing investment in india includes a new factory which plans for hornet Fighter Aircraft and it also has active heli