Narendra Modi’s five-day US trip
The ice had been broken, a meandering relationship re-energised, and the partnership resumed.
As
Obama departed from schedule to drive to the nearby National Mall for a
walk with Modi around the Martin Luther King Memorial immediately after
their two-hour summit meeting, the great reset seemed to have been set
in stone.
Obama and Modi at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
A
good beginning had been made over dinner on Monday evening, with Obama
greeting Modi in Gujarati; the official follow-through went just as
well.
"Kem Cho?" -
this is how US President Barack Obama welcomed Prime Minister Narendra
Modi in Gujarati at the doorstep of the White House, ahead of a rare
private dinner hosted in his honour before their formal Summit talks.
“Thank you very much, President", Modi responded as the two leaders shook hands and walked inside.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with US President Barack Obama at the White House.
“This
visit has reinforced my conviction that India and US are natural global
partners,” Modi said in a joint statement at the Oval Office of the
White House after the meeting.
The
main takeaway from the summit was an agreement to make joint and
concerted efforts to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal
networks like Lashkar–e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Dawood Ibrahim’s
empire, al Qaeda, and the Haqqani network.
The
two leaders also agreed that the two countries will take steps to
disrupt financial and tactical support to these terror
outfits. Officials clarified, however, that there will not be any joint
operations, but joint steps to dismantle the support structure of these
terror groups.
The
other takeaways from the summit included a joint pledge to push the
bilateral relationship to new levels, and resolve issues blocking
implementation of the civil nuclear deal.
As
the two leaders covered a broad range of issues including economic
cooperation, trade and investment, Modi made it a point to seek
continued openness and ease of access for Indian services companies to
the U.S. market.
The
two countries also reached an agreement on extending their defence
cooperation for 10 more years, and Modi invited American companies to
participate in the Indian defence manufacturing sector.
The
discussions, the first formal meeting between the two leaders spread
over delegation and restricted levels, covered terrorism in South Asia
and emerging threats in West Asia. Modi expressed the hope that India-US
relations will make fast progress.
“Both
of us are committed taking forward the civil nuclear partnership
agreement. We are serious about resolving at the earliest issues
relating to civil nuclear energy cooperation. This is important for
India for meeting energy security needs,” he said.
The
Indo-US nuclear deal concluded between the previous Manmohan Singh
government and the Bush Administration has been stalled because of
issues relating to liability laws. Sharing concerns over the threat of
terrorism in South Asia and emerging challenges in West Asia, where
Islamist group ISIS has been on the rampage, Modi said the two countries
agreed to intensify cooperation in counter-terrorism and
intelligence-sharing.
Obama
said the two leaders had discussed various issues including trade and
economic cooperation, and cooperating in the exploration of space and
scientific developments, especially to deal with challenges like Ebola.
Emphasising
that India supports trade facilitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
today told US President Barack Obama that a solution must be found on
its concerns over food security at the WTO.
Modi
had an open discussion on the WTO (World Trade Organisation) issue with
Obama during their summit talks, where a host of other topics including
the economy were also discussed.
“We
had an open discussion on WTO issue. We support trade facilitation but a
solution that takes care of our food security must be found,” Modi
said, adding he was “sure that it is possible to do that soon”
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