Washington, September 12 : Congresswoman Deborah Ross, co-chair of the Congressional Study Group on India (CSGI) and a staunch advocate for India-US ties, expressed strong confidence that the relationship can be 'repaired'.

In an exclusive interview with IANS in Washington on Thursday, Ross, a Democratic Representative from North Carolina, hoped that the relationship would be back on track soon as trade negotiations resume.

'I'm very heartened that the dialogue has reopened. After 30 years of a positive dialogue and a positive educational relationship, business relationship, we are the two largest democracies in the world. The last thing we should do is push India away from us to Russia and China. So, the great hope, and I'm a woman of hope and faith, is that this relationship will be repaired," she added.

Her statement comes as Sergio Gor, the Trump administration's nominee for US Ambassador to India, called New Delhi a 'strategic partner' during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. He also announced that both sides are close to a trade agreement.

Ross believed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China last month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, was a 'wake-up call to the administration' and 'made a huge impression on people in Washington,' to 'restart this relationship' with India.

She added that it was a 'smart move' from PM Modi to send a message to the United States that 'he has options.'

'I think it was actually a smart move for him to do that, because he showed that he has options. Unfortunately, they are bad options. They are both bad options for him and for us,' he noted.

Commenting on the personal rapport between PM Modi and President Trump, Ross hoped that 'people around the president encourage him to go back to the attitudes that he had earlier.'

In July, Ross led a bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers in urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to address delays for Indian students seeking to obtain student visa appointments. In the letter, the lawmakers highlighted that Indian students contribute $9 billion to the US economy.

The Congresswoman said that though she hasn't 'heard directly back from Secretary Rubio' on the issue, she is in discussions with the affected universities and students.

'I have been in touch with a lot of institutions of higher education about how they are pushing through those visas and how they are working with those students,' she told IANS.

Ross also spoke about her support for 'expanding' the H1B visas as the Trump administration moves to change the existing system.

'The business community wants to expand these visas. The fact is that the US is not graduating enough qualified people for a lot of these high-skilled jobs. We're not graduating enough doctors. We're not graduating enough engineers. We have to expand these visas, because there is no one country that cornered the market on innovation,' she emphasised.

Ross added that India is the 'right partner' for this exchange as it's a transparent democracy.

'It is so important that we have that cooperation with India, because you are a transparent democracy, and we would prefer to have that relationship with you than with more authoritarian regimes, ones that steal our intellectual property, ones that have other agendas,' she added.

In August 2023, Ross was part of a congressional delegation to India and visited the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command headquarters, along with Representative Ro Khanna, to advocate for strong bilateral defense ties.

She suggested that the recent India-U.S. trade tensions may only have a short-term impact on other areas of cooperation.

'What I'm hoping is that we have heard that the talks are resuming, we may be able to do some repair work. I'm hoping that in the long term, it does not.'

Ross also announced that another bipartisan delegation would be visiting India in February next year.

'I want the relationship to be strong with Congress, which is why I went to India with Representative Khanna. I had been to India previously as a state legislator, and why I'm going to India again,' she said.

Addressing the rising incidents of targeted attacks on Hindu temples and other places of worship in the United States, the Congresswoman said that some 'people are trying to divide us, to blame other people for their situations.'

'There are two things that I have done in response to that. One is to make sure that places of worship can get grants for security assistance. The second thing is we have a federal law about protecting places of worship and being able to get federal protection for that, and the Republicans actually have tried to repeal that law because it also protects access to abortion clinics. I have been very, very vocal that we cannot repeal that law,' she concluded.

/IANS