New Delhi: In his first remarks after the state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said both nations can together deploy their military forces globally to ensure maritime security, freedom of skies and bolster defence capacity of other countries, even as he reiterated that the two countries remain engaged on human rights issues.Speaking at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi on Wednesday, Garcetti said, “We will continue to engage on human rights issues, as we have always done, and as we do in all countries around the world.”During the visit last week, President Biden said he had a “good discussion on democratic values” with his guest. The joint statement had also several references to the joint democratic heritage of India and the US.But, there has also been a backlash led by Indian ministers against former US President Barack Obama over his remarks expressing concern about the treatment of minorities in India. While the White House has not made any response to this criticism, US official spokespersons strongly condemned the online harassment of the WSJ reporter for asking a question about human rights in India to Modi during the press conference.Garcetti did not address those issues directly, but reiterated that that US approaches the discussion with India on human rights “with great humility”. He said, “We will continue to engage on human rights issues, as we have always done, and as we do in all countries around the world.”He quoted both Mahatma Gandhi and Indian-origin US Vice President Kamala Harris, who emphasised the need to protect diversity and defend democracy. “In America, we’re still not perfect, and the American experiment continues alongside the American dream. I think the Indian dream is equally potent and challenging. But in the face of our domestic and international challenges, the idea of India and the United States dreaming and succeeding together are an unbeatable combination,” he said.Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles and a close political ally of President Biden, said that “we’ve unfortunately seen over the past three years, we live in a world in which countries ignore sovereign borders, advancing their claims through violence and destruction”.The military stand-off between India and China began in May 2020, with Chinese troops transgressed into areas on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh and stopped Indian soldiers from going to their traditional patrolling points.“This is not the world we want. This is not the world we need. Together, India and the United States of America can build a bulwark against this ‘might makes right’ mentality. Working together, the world’s two largest democracies can bolster the security, stability, and prosperity of the entire world,” he said.Garcetti reiterated that both countries should work in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, especially, to manage freedom of seas in the region.“We can deploy our ships together in the Pacific and Indian oceans, and even beyond, to ensure maritime security. We can employ our air forces across the Indo-Pacific region to ensure freedom of the skies and the seas, and to jointly respond to humanitarian crises from the Sahara to the Pacific Islands.”He asserted that both countries could “coordinate our land-force exercises across regions to bolster the sovereign defense of all countries who want to work with us”. “These are opportunities fully within our control as Major Defense Partners,” added Garcetti.He pointed out that on the US side, “there’s a revolutionary transition underway, to ease India’s access to these critical technologies”. India and US have agreed to start joint production of GE engines for India’s indigenous fighter jet programmes.Again bringing up China without naming the Asian giant, he said that there were “those who would prefer to use technology as an authoritarian weapon, to intimidate their neighbors and control their own citizens”.Garcetti noted that’s why the United States was “diversifying and deepening our supply chains with trusted partners and reducing dependencies that put our peoples at risk”.He mentioned that both countries had launched a partnership to make semiconductor supply chains more resilient. “We saw the first fruits of these efforts last week, when Micron, Applied Materials, and LAM Research announced agreements to collaborate with India on semiconductors,” he said, reiterating that “projects we’re initiating will change the world”.