Modi, Obama vow to take ties to next level

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday called India and US "natural global partners" and vowed with President Barack Obama to take their ties to the next level by resolving outstanding issues like their stalled nuclear deal.

After a summit meeting with Obama in his Oval office at the White House, Modi said they had also agreed to intensify their counter-terrorism and intelligence cooperation and deepen their security dialogue and defence relations.

"We discussed existing terrorism challenges, including in South Asia, and the new threats of terrorism in West Asia and beyond," Modi said and "agreed to intensify our counter-terrorism and intelligence cooperation."

"Given our broad range of shared interests, we will also continue to deepen our security dialogue and defence relations," said the Prime Minister, who had switched to a dark bandhgala suit for the summit, speaking in Hindi.

"We are serious about resolution of issues on both sides to enable civil nuclear energy cooperation to take off. It is important for India's energy security," he said after the summit that lasted over two hours, going over 45 minutes beyond schedule.

Modi said they spoke about many of their common economic priorities and expressed his belief that "India-US economic partnership will also grow rapidly in the coming years.

"I also sought President Obama's support for continued openness and ease of access for Indian services companies in the US market."

"There was great convergence in international matters," he said. On the issue of Afghanistan, "we both are committed to helping Afghanistan and improving our coordination in this area".

India and US have also decided to renew the framework agreement for defence cooperation for a further 10 years and the US will cooperate as knowledge partner for India's planned National Defence University, officials said.

Modi said they had a candid discussion on the Bali Ministerial of the WTO. "India supports trade facilitation. However, I also expect that we are able to find a solution that takes care of our concern on food security. I believe that it should be possible to do that soon," he said.

Modi said they also "agreed to consult and cooperate closely on climate change issues, an area of strong priority for both of us".

Before Modi spoke, Obama, wearing a navy blue suit and blue tie, welcomed Modi to the White House for the first time and said: "We have decided to deepen our existing ties with India."

"Last night, during a private dinner, we spent most of our time talking about the economy," Obama said.

"We agreed that in both countries, one of our primary goals is to improve education and job training so that our young people can compete in the global marketplace."

They also talked about the international situation and security issues.

"We addressed challenges in the Middle East and violent extremism, the fight against ISIL (now known as Islamic State or IS)," said Obama.

The peaceful transition of power in Afghanistan and the need to work together to ensure stability was also discussed.

The president said they had "discussed how we can continue to work together on a whole host of issues from space exploration, scientific endeavour to dealing with humanitarian crisis like Ebola in West Africa."

Obama said he was impressed with Modi's interest in not only addressing poverty in India and revitalising the economy there, but his determination that India help bring about peace and security in the world.

"I want to wish him luck in what I'm sure will be a challenging but always interesting tenure as prime minister in India," he said.

The remarks ended at 1.19 p.m. with both men standing to shake hands and smile for the cameras.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)