Obama visited India twice in eight years.
Achievements made by the Obama administration to strengthen the relationship with India has resulted in cementing stronger economic ties between the two nations, said a White House official on Tuesday.
While speaking at his last news conference as the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest told reports that President Obama considered strengthening of US-India relation as a “genuine priority.”
“The president believed that it served our economic interest and national security interest, and that would certainly explain the frequent visits of both Indian Prime Ministers during President Obama’s tenure in office to the White House and it would explain President Obama’s visits to India as well,” Earnest said.
Eight years of Obama presidency saw him visiting India twice – first by any US President and he also rolled out the red carpet for former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh thrice and his successor Narendra Modi twice.
Since Modi became the Prime Minister of India, Obama met him as many as eight times and discussed issues ranging from terrorism to trade.
“Each of those visits was oriented around a discussion about how to deepen our economic ties in a way that has positive benefits for workers in other countries, but also to look for ways that we can work more effectively together to fight extremism and to enhance the security of citizens of both our countries,” Earnest said.
“President Obama certainly believes that we have made important progress in deepening and strengthening the relationship between two of the world’s largest democracies and is hopeful that progress will continue into the next administration,” he said while responding to a question.