Describing the just concluded United States visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as extraordinarily successful, the White House has said that his meeting with President Barack Obama has re-energised the strategic relationship between the two largest democracies of the world.
"In sum, I would say that the assessment on our part is that the prime minister's visit was extraordinarily successful. It has provided a boost in terms of the vision and focus that we have for our bilateral relations," Phil Reiner, senior director for India at the National Security Council, told a select group of foreign correspondents in Washington.
Complete coverage: Modi's historic US visit
"We're excited to be moving forward with a re-energised strategic partnership. The US continues to strongly support a prosperous India that plays an important role in the global stage, and I think the prime minister's visit really provided the opportunity for the two leaders to discuss that vision that's necessary in order to set the framework under which we are going to operate going forward," Reiner said.
Modi met Obama at the White House this week and held talks on strengthening the bilateral ties.
Obama hosted Modi for a private dinner at the White House and the next day the two leaders met at the Oval Office. He also joined Modi when the latter visited the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial soon after their meeting.
"This visit in some ways went a long ways towards re-energising and re-launching the bilateral relationship. It's a relationship that fundamentally is not just government-to-government. It extends across all aspects of American society, American private sector, and engages the Indian society writ large and the Indian private sector, civil society, academic sector," said Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal.
"That informed the nature of the conversations and it also informed the nature of the initiatives and the agenda between the two countries of how to harness this very rich set of connections between our two countries towards achieving shared objectives," she said.
"So it was quite refreshing and energising -- the prime minister shared his very robust vision for India’s transformation, and he talked about the kinds of things that he would like to be working on over his tenure, which I think resonated with the president, resonated certainly with secretary (of state John) Kerry and all of us who had the opportunity to engage on that," Biswal said.
Biswal said both the leaders discussed the true test is not the launching of these initiatives, but the next six months, 12 months, 18 months of implementation, and the desire for both sides to really redouble their efforts at taking what was launched and moving it in the form of concrete actions.
"That's what our focus is going to be as we move forward, is on that action plan for how we turn really exciting initiatives into facts on the ground," she said.
When asked if Obama and Modi discussed religious freedoms and the protection of minority rights in India, she said, "I’m not aware of a specific conversation."
"What I would say is that the two leaders talked about their desire to support an inclusive growth agenda that provides opportunity for all Indians," Biswal said.
"So it's on that basis that we approach this, it's on that basis that we want to move forward. It is that inclusive vision that the prime minister has spoken very compellingly of, both during his campaign but most specifically since he has come into office, that has resonated very strongly in the US and one that the Secretary (of State, John) Kerry, during his trip to India, spoke to. I think we look forward to partnering together in advancing that vision," she said.
Biswal said at the same time the US insisted a very comprehensive dialogue with India, including about their shared values on global issues of human rights, of religious freedom, religious tolerance, of women’s empowerment.
"We have a women’s empowerment dialogue between our two countries. These are opportunities for us to share best practices, to share lessons learned. These are works in progress in both countries, and these are opportunities for us to advance understanding, and we take it in that spirit," she said.
Reiner said the two leaders intend to focus on poorest of the poor. "I know that you want to talk about religious freedom. The theme that I heard was in terms of inclusivity and reaching out to everyone," he added.
"We will be working closely with the Indian government on precisely what you're asking about in -- not just in response to any -- a letter, but because it's a critical issue for both of our governments," Reiner said.
Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama at the Martin Luther King memorial, in Washington DC. Photograph: Press Information Bureau
