The US NATO envoy said the NATO alliance is open to greater engagement if India so desires.

American NATO Ambassador Julian Smith has given a big statement regarding the inclusion of India in NATO.

The US NATO ambassador to NATO, Julian Smith, said that "NATO is open to further engagement with India, if India is interested in pursuing it."

The ambassador, however, stressed that currently there are no plans by the alliance to expand it into a comprehensive global military alliance.

Julian Smith said, "The NATO alliance is open to greater engagement. NATO currently has 40 different partners around the world and each has a different individual partnership.

Different countries come to the door looking for different levels of political engagement, sometimes countries are more interested in working on questions of interoperability and standardization.

Therefore, they are different.

But, the message that has already been sent back is that the NATO alliance is certainly open to greater engagement with India should that country be interested in taking it forward." In addition, the NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs Speaking on the meeting, Julian Smith said, "In terms of a future with India, I think the door is open to NATO, should India be interested."  

Appreciating India's role in the Russia-Ukraine war, Smith said he was grateful for the humanitarian assistance that India has been able to provide to the beleaguered country and he supported India's call for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. appreciates.

Smith said, "We have been in constant contact with India about what else we can do to hold Russia accountable and we have done that and worked with them. After Russia started this war inside Ukraine India has talked to India many times since."

"The United States and India do not always share the same policy approaches, but we share a commitment to upholding the rules-based order and ensuring that key principles, particularly as they relate to sovereignty and territorial integrity, Those principles are respected. I think that's the most important part of our relationship."

We're bringing our friends from the Indo-Pacific to the ministerial at NATO headquarters, what we call the North Atlantic Council, to the summit so that we can learn from our partners in terms of their experiences, challenges to security."

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