Obama's Last Gift To India

New Delhi: In his 8 years presidential tenure US President Barack Obama has engaged very cordially with Indian administration. Particularly his friendship with PM Modi is phenomenal. Even Modi said on several occasions that he and President Obama have a special wavelength and special friendship. US designated India as a 'major defence partner'. As a final gift, the outgoing Obama administration has proposed an exceptionally liberal export control regime for transfer of defence related technology to India. They set this proposal for the incoming Trump presidency. The administrative agenda made for Donald Trump also includes a proposal for frequent and more bigger bilateral and trilateral defence exercises involving Japan, India and Australia. Outgoing US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter today met his Indian counter part Manohar Parrikar in Delhi for the record 7th time and declared India as ‘major defence partner’. He vowed to expand the bilateral relations and cooperation in Defence. The joint statement issued after the meeting highlighted India’s concerns on growing terrorism. It specifically mentioned that, “They agreed to continue further strengthen the bilateral counter-terrorism activities and cooperation and emphasised the need to make sure that terror elements receive no patronage from any State”.