NEW DELHI, Nov 8 (KUNA) -- India has emerged as a "world power", and today it is a "key actor at the world stage," said US President Barack Hussein Obama in New Delhi on Monday.
The remark was made while addressing a joint press conference along with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the two leaders held a meeting.
Obama is on a four-day state visit to India on an invitation of Prime Minister Singh.
Repeating his earlier assertion, Obama said that the Indo-US partnership would be a defining one for the 21st century. "India and the US are the world's biggest democracies and it is for their mutual interest to forge a trade partnership and friendship. Our partnership would be a defining one for the 21st century," he told media.
He stressed on the fact that successive US Presidents, irrespective of which political party they belonged to, have helped building ties with India. "Clinton was a Democrat, then Bush a Republican, and now myself a Democrat; all of us have steadily strived to build up smooth partnership and friendship with India," he elaborated.
"I have spent maximum number of days here than in any foreign country since assuming Presidency," Obama said to indicate the significance the US attaches to the host state.
Asked how India could benefit from 50,000 jobs to be created in the US out of the 20 business deals worth USD 10 billion signed on Saturday with Indian companies, the visiting President said that India would benefit by import of American technologies and their use here.
To a question about US policy on Kashmir, Obama said that it was a long-standing dispute between the two countries and that it was in the interest of both to resolve it. "Both India and Pakistan have interests in reducing tension over Kashmir," he said, and added that his country was ready to mediate if both sides call for such a US role.
This statement assumes significance as India has all along stated that it does not want any third party mediation in resolving the Kashmir problem.
Speaking to media, Prime Minister Singh said that India required "enormous help" from the US in building up its infrastructure. "India needs a trillion dollars in the next five years for building up its infrastructure; we welcome US' enormous help in this regard."(end) py.wsa KUNA 081356 Nov 10NNNN