Regional connectivity discussed
Infrastructure connectivity and terrorism in South Asia occupied a key place in talks between US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their first meeting in Washington on Tuesday.
The president and the PM emphasized the need to accelerate infrastructure connectivity and economic development corridors for regional economic integration linking South, Southeast, and Central Asia, a joint statement issued after Obama-Modi talks said.
It said Obama reiterated that the United States, through its New Silk Road and India-Pacific Economic Corridor, is promoting the linkage of India to its neighbours and the wider region to enable a freer flow of commerce and energy.
India has been prodding Bangladesh for providing road and waterways connectivity and the issue came up during the first meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Modi on the margins of the UN General Assembly on September 27.
Emerging from the 90-minute talks with Obama on Tuesday, Modi said that they discussed the challenges posed by terrorism. “We discussed existing terrorism challenges including in south Asia and new threats in west Asia," he said.
The two countries have agreed to share intelligence and cooperate on counter-terrorism measures. They also discussed the need to dismantle "safe havens" for terrorists, said the joint statement.
However, an official from Ministry of External Affairs said India will not join the US-led military campaign against the so called Islamic State in Iraq.
The Obama administration reached an agreement with India on Tuesday on measures intended to accelerate that country's shift to renewable fuels, steps that officials say will reduce carbon emissions while helping India's new government extend electricity to all of its 1.2 billion citizens.
The package also contained a modest step toward reducing global emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, industrial chemicals that act as a powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Indian officials formally agreed to engage in international discussions that the White House hopes will lead to a phaseout of the chemicals, known as HFCs.
The United States and India, fresh from sending their own respective spacecraft into Mars' orbit earlier this month, also agreed to cooperate on future exploration of the Red Planet. Two deals were signed in this regard during a meeting in Toronto, Canada, between Nasa administrator Charles Bolden and Chairman K Radhakrishnan of the Indian Space Research Organization.
And, in a boost to Modi's 100 smart city programme, the US will help India in developing three such cities apart from joining hands with civil society and authorities to provide clean water and sewage facilities in 500 cities in the country.
The three cities are Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam.
Winding up his whirlwind five-day US visit on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi "thanked" America and called his trip a highly "successful and satisfactory".
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