New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the capital Wednesday after his “hugely successful” visit to the US.
During the visit, the Indian-American community gave him an unparalleled rock star-like reception.
In a special gesture, US president Barack Obama joined Modi on an unscheduled trip to the memorial of African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Modi, who himself called his visit “a hugely successful journey”, promised to replace bureaucratic red tape with a red carpet and invited US business and industry to come to India and “Make in India”.
In a joint vision statement and a joint op-ed in the Washington Post, something again unprecedented, Modi and Obama vowed to “chalein saath saath – together we go forward” with a new agenda to realise the full potential of a renewed US-India partnership for the 21st century.
Modi secured a commitment from Obama to make joint and concerted efforts to dismantle terrorist safe havens.
The joint statement issued after Tuesday’s summit at the White House specifically mentioned four Pakistan-based groups – Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis besides Al Qaeda – and also reiterated their call for Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the Nov 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to justice.
Modi ended his visit with an address to the US-India Business Council comprising 310 top US companies doing business with India.
During his five-day visit, Modi addressed the UN General Assembly and had bilateral meetings on the sidelines, including with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.