Obama, Modi have strong, productive relationship: US official

US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have developed a strong and productive relationship between them, a top American climate change official has said.
"President Obama and Prime Minister Modi have a very, strong and productive relationship, not just on climate change but broadly," Todd Stern, the US Special Envoy on Climate Change said yesterday.
"It was a quite extraordinary fact that within the space of four months there were two head of the state visits, one first to the United States in September of 2014 and then Prime Minister Modi invited the President to India just four months later in January," the official said.

Thereafter the two leaders have been close communications with each other. "They met on the margins of the UNGA in New York and they met on the first day of the Paris meeting," Stern said.
According to Stern the meeting was a very warm and positive, cordial and detailed.
"In fact, they talked so long that - they were both supposed to go - and did go finally, but they were a little bit late to the announcement of this big Mission Innovation idea on R&D that both - well, the United States, India, China, many other countries ultimately were part of," the US official said.

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Yates, who is likely to be involved in the foreign policy and national security team of the Trump campaign, said India is one of the few countries on which the GOP platform is very positive.
He was one of the co-chairs of the national security section of the platform.
"The (platform) language very clearly identifies India as a strategic partner, ally in common causes on global and regional issues," he said, adding that during the Bush Administration there was an effort to revisit the strategic relationship with India.
The non-proliferation lobby in the government, saw India through old lenses and opposed it.

"We made some progress (in the Bush Administration). This platform is an step well beyond that. It makes clear that we have a challenging relationship with Pakistan. We must continue to have a relationship (with Pakistan) given the danger it poses to both India and the United States," he said.
"I am hopeful that this new administration of Trump and Pence would seize on this and would see as an opportunity to improve strategic relationship with the Government of India," Yates added.