Washington: Terming the Indo-US relationship as "robust, reliable and enduring", Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the true potential of the ties was yet to be fully realised and the advent of a new government in India was a natural opportunity to broaden and deepen the ties.
For the first time, writing a joint editorial, the Indian Prime Minister and the American President said it was time to set a "new agenda" and with a reinvigorated level of ambition and greater confidence both the countries can go beyond modest and conventional goals.
"This will be an agenda that enables us to find mutually rewarding ways to expand our collaboration in trade, investment and technology that harmonize with India's ambitious development agenda, while sustaining the United States as the global engine of growth," they said in the editorial published in the Washington Post.
They said as global partners, they are committed to enhancing our homeland security by sharing intelligence, through counter-terrorism and law-enforcement cooperation, while we jointly work to maintain freedom of navigation and lawful commerce across the seas.
The two leaders said that "today our partnership is robust, reliable and enduring, and it is expanding. Our relationship involves more bilateral collaboration than ever before - not just at the federal level but also at the state and local levels, between our two militaries, private sectors and civil society.
"Indeed, so much has happened that, in 2000, then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee could declare that we are natural allies."
Read the full text of the Op-ed here.
On the last day of his five-day visit to the US, the Prime Minister will meet US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and separately the Governor of Maryland state. Today is also being observed as US-India Partnership Day.
Thereafter Modi will go to the White House for the official bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama. The two are expected to issue a joint statement at the end of the meeting.
