Obama visit recognised India's emergence as global power: US

Thursday January 13, 2011 07:59:22 PM, Arun Kumar, IANS

Washington: US President Barack Obama's India visit in November 2010 recognised that New Delhi is one of the emerging powers around the globe that are increasingly important, a senior administration official has said.

The visit reflected all elements of the India-US relationship and an evolving "deep, personal relationship" between Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mike Hammer, spokesperson of the National Security Council, told the foreign media via a video conference.

"We saw the very important and successful visit the president made last November to India. We've had a state visit with Prime Minister Singh. And that's a strategic partnership that continues to grow and is, I think, in the interest of both countries and the world to try to continue on that path," he said.

"I think what you've seen is an evolving deep, personal relationship between the president and prime minister Singh," Hammer said.

"This is something that we're very optimistic and positive about, I think you're going to see increasing cooperation between both our countries, including recently some decisions by India with regard to Iran and financing," he added.

"It's not only a question of the security interests of both countries, but the economic interests of both countries, the cultural ties between both countries. And we're very encouraged."

Hammer said the United States encourages a dialogue between India and Pakistan to ensure stability in South Asia.

"The president recognises that India is an important partner and certainly critical in the region, and that in order to ensure stability in South Asia, we wanted to encourage dialogue between India and Pakistan," he said. "That's something that we continue to support when there are efforts there."

"Because the more confidence and trust that can be built between those two nations, the more able everyone else is to focus on really the challenges of extremism and terrorism that are a threat to us all," Hammer said in response to a question.

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

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