The US State Department's Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said that India is an important partner of choice for the United States in a number of spaces, and that includes trade cooperation. India-US ties is, of course, of great importance to us, the US official said

Washington: India is an important partner of choice for the United States, the Biden Administration has said ahead of the crucial visit of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval for talks with the top American leadership, including his counterpart Jake Sullivan.

"India is an important partner of choice for the United States in a number of spaces, and that includes trade cooperation," State Department's Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters here on Thursday.

"It, of course, includes security cooperation. It also includes technological cooperation as well. I don't want to get too ahead of the process or get ahead of any specific meetings that might be coming down the pike," he said in response to a question.

"This (India-US ties) is, of course, of great importance to us," Patel said.