President Donald Trump,

Friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,

At the outset, I express my heartfelt gratitude to President Trump for his friendly welcome, beginning with the opening tweet to the completion of our dialogue, and also for a very warm welcome at the White House by him and the First Lady. President Trump, I specially thank you for spending such a long time with me. My present visit and our today’s dialogue will become an extremely important chapter in the history of our bilateral cooperation. Friends, my dialogue today with President Trump’s has been very important:

For it was based on mutual trust;

Because it was based on the similarity of our values, priorities, concerns and interests;

Because it was focused on the ultimate achievement of mutual cooperation and partnership between India and the United States;

Because both the countries are global engines of growth;

Because all-round development of both the countries and the societies and their shared progress are the primary objectives of both President Trump and me; and it will continue to be so;

Because to protect our societies from the global challenges like terrorism is among the top priorities of President Trump and me;

Because our goal is shared empowerment of world’s two large democracies - India and the United States.

Friends,

We have such a strong partnership that touches almost all the areas of human endeavour. In our discussion today, President Trump and I have thoroughly covered all the aspects of the relations between India and the United States. Both the countries are committed to such a bilateral architecture that will take our strategic partnership to new heights.

In this context, increased productivity, growth, job creation and breakthrough technologies will be the strong drivers for the strong engagement, mutual cooperation and momentum in our relations.

We consider the USA an important partner in our flagship programmes for bringing about social and economic changes in India. I believe that the inherent convergence in my vision of a ‘New India’ and President Trump’s vision of ‘Make America Great Again’ will create new dimension for mutual cooperation. It’s my considered view that a strong and successful USA is in India’s interest.

Similarly, India’s development and India’s growing importance at the global level is in the interest of USA. Enhancement of trade, commerce and investment links will be the priority of our shared efforts. And in this context, expansion and deepening of our cooperation in the field of technology, innovation and knowledge economy will be among our top most objectives. We will take steps to further strengthen our successful partnership in the digital field.

Friends,

We are not only partners in realizing our potential but we are also partners in facing the present and future challenges.

In our meeting today, we discussed the grave threat emanating from terrorism, extremism and militancy in the world and agreed to increase our cooperation in this area.

Fighting terrorism and elimination of terror sanctuaries will be an important element of our partnership.

We will increase the exchange of information and intelligence inputs regarding our similar concerns about the terror groups and deepen the policy coordination to the maximum possible extent. We also thoroughly discussed about the regional issues.

Increasing instability in Afghanistan due to terrorism is our shared concern. Both India and the USA have played an important role in the security and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

We will continue to maintain close consultation, communication and coordination with the United States for achieving the peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Maintaining peace, stability and happiness in the Indo-Pacific region is the primary objective of our strategic cooperation. Expansion of the potentials of the region and protection of our interests from the emerging challenges in the area will continue to determine the dimensions of our partnership.

We will continue to work with the US in this region. Our growing cooperation in the area of defence and security is extremely important in the context of security challenges. We have a detailed discussion on this issue.

We appreciate the strengthening of India’s defence capabilities by the USA. We also have decided to increase our maritime security cooperation in every possible way.

Strengthening of bilateral defence technology, trade and manufacturing partnership between the two countries will be mutually beneficial. We also discussed our military interests in the global context.

In this context we are grateful for the continuous support of the US for India’s membership in international institutions and regimes. It’s in our mutual interest.

President Trump,

I thank you for your friendliness towards India and for myself. I appreciate your strong commitment to our bilateral relationship.

I am confident that under your leadership our mutually beneficial strategic partnership will acquire a new strength, positivity and new height.

And your extremely successful personal experience in the field of business will provide an aggressive and forward looking agenda to our cooperation.

I thank you for providing an able leadership to the journey of Indo-US relationship. Be assured that I will be a determined, driven and decisive partner of yours in this journey of the shared development of both the countries.

Excellency,

My visit and detailed discussions with you today have been tremendously successful. Before leaving the dais, I invite you and your family to visit India.

I’m hopeful that you will provide me an opportunity to welcome you in India. And in the end, once again I express my gratitude to you and the First Lady for welcoming me here today, for honoring me.

Thank you.
 

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AKT/MG/KT/AK