India-US relationship going to get stronger under Trump: WH

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ The India-US relationship is going to get stronger and better under the Trump administration in a wide range of areas, including regional security issues, trade and economy, terrorism, a senior White House official has said.

“India is a natural ally of the United States, because of the shared commitment to democracy and to counterterrorism, and because the region is so vital to the US security,” Raj Shah Raj Shah, the White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, told a group of Indian reporters yesterday.

Shah’s comments came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump held their second bilateral meeting in Manila on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit. The two countries are going to have a “strong relationship and it’s going to get stronger” under this president, he said.

Shah, the highest-ranking Indian-American ever in the White House press wing said that US-India relationship should stand on its own leg and “not be contingent” on any other relationship. There are a lot more in common between India and the US than that between US and China, he said.