India and the US promise to work for world peace, development

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets the USA President Barack Obama in Oval Office, at White House in Washington DC, USA on June 7, 2016. (Photo: IANS/PIB)

Washington – India and the US on Tuesday promised to work together for the sake of global peace and security and the benefit of developing countries.

“India has made a name for itself as the fastest growing economy in the world,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint address to the media with US President Barack Obama following bilateral talks in the Oval Office of the White House.

“We (India and the US) will work together for the world’s peace and security,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the two sides discussed a range of issues of cooperation from business and technology to governance.

“In the last two years, India and the US worked shoulder-to-shoulder on issues like nuclear security, global warming, counter-terrorism, and Paris (climate) agreement,” Modi said.

“Today, we discussed about taking our economy to new heights and about cyber security.”

The Prime Minister described India as a young country with 800 million people under the age of 35.

“India and the US can work together to use this talent and youth power for the welfare of the world,” he said.

“India and the US have been cooperating on global issues such as nuclear security, global warming and terrorism.”

Modi also thanked Obama for his support to India’s membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Obama said India and the US were the largest democracies in the world.

“Our wider cooperation will be helpful for developing countries of the world,” he said.

“India is a young country and and we are aware of the talent it has. We will continue to work together in the future too.”

Obama said India and the US were the two largest democracies with strong bonds between the people and businesses of the two countries.

“We discussed about the progress made in our civilian nuclear agreement and India’s membership of the NSG,” he said.

“We also discussed about nuclear technology falling into wrong hands.”

The President said the key priorities for both India and the US were economic prosperity and poverty alleviation.

“We discussed regional security issues and cyber security issues,” he added.

This was the seventh meeting between Modi and Obama as Prime Minister and President.

Modi arrived here on Monday from Switzerland on his second bilateral visit to the US after his trip in September, 2014. Prior to Switzerland, he visited Afghanistan and Qatar.

The Prime Minister is visiting the US at the invitation of Obama, who in the last year of his presidency is inviting a few world leaders with whom he shared a “close and productive working relationship”.