Last 2 years marked the best in US-India relation: Verma

Team Udayavani, Jan 13, 2017, 5:19 PM IST

Aizawl: The last two years have marked the best in the Indo-US relationship when President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met nine times and several initiative were undertaken, US Ambassador Richard Verma today said.

He said his country strongly condemns repeated incursions and infiltrations by Pakistan-backed terrorist groups into India.

President Obama and Prime Minister Modi met nine times in the two years, when three summits were held, over a hundred initiatives taken up and 40 working groups at the top government levels set up, Verma told an interactive session with students and faculty of Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India University here.

He said the volume of trade between the two democratic countries was over USD 110 bn with 500 American companies investing in India and over 200 Indian companies having investments in the US.

He said 1.2 million Americans visited India during last year.

Verma said the biggest issue before the two countries in the coming decade would be clean energy and combating climate change and Delhi and Washington would cooperate in civil nuclear and carbon-free power generation.

Digital connectivity and Internet super-highways are the areas where the two nations should work together not only for bilateral benefit but also to benefit other countries, he added.

Verma said the US wants peace in the region and has condemned terrorist activities in the Indo-Pak border areas.

US and India have been working together to build aircraft carrier and combat aircraft including helicopters as the two countries have strong Defense Trade and Technology Initiatives (DTTI), he added.