India, March 24 -- The US perceives India as "indispensable" for maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific and an essential partner for a favourable balance of power in Asia, a senior Trump administration official said on Tuesday, while outlining a vision for the two sides to work together on convergent interests despite differences or even disputes on certain issues.

Elbridge Colby, the US under secretary of defense for policy who is in the capital to co-chair a meeting of the Defence Policy Group, pointed to the alignment between New Delhi's "Bharat First" approach and the Trump administration's policy of "America First" and flexible realism, and highlighted a four-point agenda based on cooperation despite differences, the centrality of...