U.S. President Barack Obama Looks Forward To Working With Narendra Modi, Says White House

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama looks forward to working with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfil the extraordinary promise of the U.S.-India strategic partnership and deepen bilateral cooperation, a White House spokesperson said.

Obama has invited Modi to the White House in September, which is expected to set the tone of the long-term relationship between the leaders of the two largest democratic countries of the world. "The President looks forward to working closely with Prime Minister Modi to fulfil the extraordinary promise of the U.S.-India strategic partnership and continuing to expand and deepen the wide-ranging cooperation between our two democracies for years to come," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told PTI.

While the date of the Obama-Modi meeting has not been announced, it is likely to take place on September 30 at the White House. There is much enthusiasm and excitement in the Obama Administration to throw a red carpet welcome to the Prime Minister, who in May this year led his party to a historic win – the first time a party in nearly three decades got absolute majority in the Lok Sabha.

Old timers in the U.S. Government, hope that the strain in the bilateral ties, which was evident in the last phase of the previous UPA regime would be a thing of the past and after the September meeting, Modi and Obama would personally drive the relationship in realising the true potential of the strategic ties between India and the U.S.

Those few in the Administration, who have faint memory of the U.S.-India relationship under the Vajpayee Government, before the 10 years UPA, describe the NDA rule as the "golden era" of the bilateral ties and hope a revival of that period.

Last week, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal, who is one of the select few Obama Administration official to have met Modi exuded confidence of a new era in India U.S. relationship with Modi as the Prime Minister. Biswal had accompanied Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to meet Modi on New Delhi early this month.

"The true potential of this relationship was best characterised by Prime Minister Modi himself when he said to us two weeks ago that it is not just benefits to the Indian people and the American people, but that the true value of the U.S.-India relationship is that when the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy come together, it is the world that stands to benefit," Biswal told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing.