India's new Ambassador to US calls on US President

India's new Ambassador to the United States Harsh Vardhan Shringla called on the US President Donald Trump and presented his credentials here on Friday (local time).

Post the meeting, Shringla addressed the media and the State Department officials.

Talking about his meeting with Trump, Shringla said, "The President attaches great importance to our bilateral relations. He referred to the wide gamut of operations that two nations are involved in, not just at the bilateral level but also as strategic partners in a level that involves regional and global areas of interest, in particular, the vision of the Indo-Pacific region. "

He further stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had envisioned partnership on the Indo-Pacific front during their 2017 meeting.

Stating that the work on the relationship will be a great experience as they "have a wide Canvas," Shringla said, "It is really for us to see how we can maneuver the various elements that comprise our relationship to take this forward in a way that it is befitting of the two nations and the commonalities that the two countries enjoy in the terms of ideas, principles and objectives on regional, bilateral and global levels."

He further revealed that he had called on Prime Minister Modi before arriving in Washington D.C. and said, "He (the Prime Minister) was quite particular that we should make the fullest endeavour to address all the areas that could show a very significant change in the relationship."

Furthermore, talking about the huge potentials for cooperation, Shringla said, "It is very incumbent on me and my colleagues along with partners and stakeholders to see how we can best take this relationship to the levels for which the potentials exist."

He further said that the two countries have been working on multiple levels together.

Hailing the progress as momentous, the ambassador stated that a great amount of progress has been made in different areas of cooperation including bilateral, regional and global levels.

Reiterating that team India aims to be very diligent in pursuing these opportunities of cooperation, Shringla said, "As team Indian, we need to be on our toes."

Shringla arrived in Washington D.C. on January 9 and took charge as Ambassador-designate. Shringla replaced outgoing envoy Navtej Sarna.