Will US Back India If Pak Launches Another Attack? Ex-CIA Chief Answers

Relations between the United States, India and Pakistan have changed several times over the years and will continue to change, former CIA Director and US Army General David Petraeus said. This comment came when Petraeus was asked whether the US would support India if Pakistan launched another terror attack like Uri or Pahalgam.

Speaking at the NDTV World Summit, Petraeus was asked what India should expect of the US if it faces another such attack. 

"The relationships between the US, Pakistan and India have evolved many times over the years. I've been part of that evolution over the years. And I think they will continue to evolve," Petraeus said.

He further said that India was becoming a major economic force and could soon become the world's third-largest economy. He asserted that India was growing at a strong pace and was already close to Japan in terms of economic position.

"I think I don't know how many years it will be, or a year or two, that it'll be until India is the number three economy in the world," he said.

He also pointed to India's infrastructure growth, saying it would make the country an important destination and a source of opportunities. "And as the infrastructure keeps going in, this is going to be again an incredibly important destination and a credibly important source," Petraeus said.

He added that the US was already heavily invested in India and wants to increase its investments. “I'm going to affirm that... [the US] is very, very heavily invested here and wants to invest more and is always looking for more opportunities to do that,” he said.

Petraeus also spoke about how India-US ties have changed in the last 26 years. He said the relationship saw major progress during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush, especially in areas such as defence and nuclear technology.

"It has evolved very, very substantially over the last 26 years since really President Clinton and then early President Bush years started doing the defence technology, nuclear technology, all the rest of these. These are big steps," he said.