US President Barack Obama’s three-day maiden visit to India that concluded yesterday has “achieved everything"what Washington had hoped for, a top American official said.
“We believe that the visit has achieved everything that we had hoped for,” US State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news conference.
“As the President reinforced today, it was his third consecutive administration of Democrats and Republicans to visit India. It demonstrates the importance of our relationship and the importance of India’s emerging role in the world,” Crowley said.
“And as President Obama made clear, he will not be the last President to visit India,” he said.
The US President travelled to Mumbai and New Delhi during in his India visit. While the Mumbai leg of Obama’s trip was more focused on trade, economic and cultural aspects of the Indo-US ties, the New Delhi leg took the bilateral ties to an altogether new level.
“The US-India partnership is indispensable to addressing the challenges of our times. This strategic relationship encompasses a range of issues, activities, and programs that reflect the vision of President Obama and Prime Minister Singh that benefits not only the people of the US and India but the world as a whole,” a fact sheet issued by the White House after the Obama visit said.
“The two leaders welcomed the deepening relationship between the world’s two largest democracies. They commended the growing cooperation between their governments, citizens, businesses, universities and scientific institutions, which have thrived on a shared culture of pluralism, education, enterprise and innovation, and have benefited the people of both countries,” said a joint-statement issued after the visit.
Both the leaders reaffirmed that Indo-US strategic partnership is indispensable not only for their two countries but also for global stability and prosperity in the 21st century, it said.
“To that end, President Obama welcomed India’s emergence as a major regional and global power and affirmed his country’s interest in India’s rise, its economic prosperity and its security,” the joint-statement said.