What did Narendra Modi tell former Utah governor Jon M Huntsman when he met him? Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.

'One of the great assets that India has is its enormous intellectual content, enormous intellectual developmental content, and some of the things we need to be working on are unmanned systems, for example, the enormous opportunities for us to jointly partner and develop -- not simply sell our equipment to India -- but actually partner and develop in areas like drones, areas like advanced aircraft and even areas around certain missile systems, where we can have a win-win.'

'A lot of people,' says India's Ambassador to the US, 'are struggling how to define this relationship.' Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.

'This is going to be an opportunity to hear from the prime minister of the new India and the progress made in the last two years of the growing cooperation between the US and India in several areas, including areas that would have seemed implausible a few years ago.' US Congressman Ed Royce, who led the campaign to have Prime Minister Modi address a joint session of Congress, speaks to Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

Senator John Cornyn, founder and Republican co-chair of the Senate India Caucus, strongly defends his vote against a resolution to block sale of American-made F-16s to Pakistan.

'Big countries do not agree on every set of issues.' 'Look, one of the differences in the relationship is that when we do not agree, we are sitting down and talking to each other.'

'She will recognise the talent of the Indian-American community.'

Obviously having gotten the green light from the Prime Minister's Office in New Delhi that if they lobby the Speaker to address a joint session of Congress, which he has not been able to do despite his three visits to the US, the Congressmen informed Paul Ryan that 'It is our understanding that if invited, the prime minister would accept.'

Members of his team and industry were right now in India, US Defence Secretary Ash Carter disclosed, 'looking at the potential co-production of fighter aircraft.'

'The days are gone when we only deal with India as the other side of the Pakistan coin or Pakistan as the other side of the India coin.'

'The Indian government has accepted and is a party to international agreements, standards and conventions on religious freedom.' 'We did not force it on them. We are not trying to impose something on them that they haven't already agreed to...' 'India has never allowed us to visit, which is very disappointing for such a wonderful country with such a rich democratic tradition. They seem to be afraid to let us in.'

'A vote for Hillary means a vote for endless wars of trying to overthrow governments and rebuilding foreign countries.' 'A vote for Bernie Sanders means an end to these interventionist wars, and instead spending our money and precious resources rebuilding our own country,' Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the only Hindu-American in the United States Congress, tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com

'The Senators were playing safe, not angering either the pro-India lobby or the pro-Pakistan lobby, but perhaps more importantly, the military-industrial complex -- the most powerful lobby of all -- which the majority of Senators are beholden to in terms of largesse to their campaign coffers.'

'The past year has yielded extraordinary results in the strategic, commercial, and people-to-people components of the India-United States partnership, US Ambassador to India Richard Rahul Verma tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

'What we have heard from the Sri Lankans is their desire to have a foreign policy that allows Sri Lanka to best advance its own interests rather than a foreign policy that relied solely on one relationship.' 'We think this is an attitude that makes a lot of sense. India and Sri Lanka have many areas of shared interests, and it's certainly welcomed by us to see that deepening of those ties.'

Judge Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan is the front-runner to replace the late Justice Anthony Scalia on the US Supreme Court.

'Pakistan has to take responsibility and start cracking down on terrorists.'

'Both India and Pakistan are now, for the first time in history, very closely allied and connected with the US -- economically and politically.'

'The US-India relationship is in a different league altogether,' Obama administration officials tell Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in Washington, DC.

'We think Pakistan has moved decisively against terrorists that threaten Pakistan internally, but still needs to devote attention to those that represent a threat to their neighbours.'