Interacting with students of Political Science on the Kariavattom campus of Kerala University on Tuesday, United States diplomat Herro Mustafa advised them to set their aims high and never let anybody bring them down. She also discussed the Indo-US relationship with them.
A former advisor to US Vice-President Joe Biden on West Asia, Mustafa is an Iraqi-born American, whose parents fled Saddam Hussein’s regime and sought asylum in the American state of North Dakota.
“Being an immigrant refugee, you start with nothing,” Mustafa told the students. “But it has taught me to set your aims high, achieve them and then aim even higher.”
Discussing with the students their take on the Indo-US relations, Mustafa said that five areas required close cooperation between the two countries - homeland security, defence relations, promoting multilateralism, India’s role in its neighbourhood region and promoting trade and business relationships.
“I believe in interpersonal relationships,” she said. “It is really the people-to-people business relations between our two countries that have really taken the Indo-US relationship forward,” she said.
She also condoled the recent attack by a gunman on the Sikh community at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, adding that US President Barack Obama had ordered US flags all over the world to be flown at half-mast as a mark of respect to the victims.
A part of the documentary film ‘American Herro’, based on Mustafa’s life, including her childhood as a Kurdish-Muslim refugee, was also shown to the students.
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