The Obama administration wants to enhance economic and strategic ties with India, says a White House spokesperson.
American business and industry heads have been urging the U.S. government to persuade India to change its restrictive trade policies. Vice President Joe Biden is currently in New Delhi meeting with top Indian leaders including Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India.
"The message that the Vice President is carrying (from the President) in his meetings with Indian officials, is that we want to continue to enhance our economic and strategic engagement with India," said the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney while speaking to reporters.
"There are enormous opportunities for our two countries to work together and to work together even more closely than we have as this relationship has evolved in a positive direction now for so many years," said Jay Carney.
The statement from the White House follows an open letter by American companies to the vice president, urging him to press New Delhi's leaders over its trade policies, which they said are "discriminatory" and "harmful" to the U.S. companies in India.
"When it comes to economic growth, trade, energy and climate change, as well as security issues and education issues, there's a lot that the Vice President is discussing in India," said Carney "So I know, having spoken with him before he departed, that he was very much looking forward to this trip. He and the President highly value our relationship with India, and are looking for ways to make it even stronger and more cooperative,"
Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram recently returned from a four-day-visit to the U.S. where he tried to attract more investments into India in an effort to heal the ailing Indian economy and stem the fall of the Indian Rupee in recent weeks.
Upon arrival from U.S., the finance minister had introduced several economic reforms including relaxing rules for foreign direct investment in India.
