US President Donald Trump said he discussed religious freedom issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “he wants people to have religious freedom”.
On the violence in Delhi, President Trump said he did not discuss “individual attacks” and those were “up to India”.
“We did talk about religious freedom. I will say that the Prime Minister was incredible and he told me that he wants people to have religious freedom. He told me that in India they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom. If we look back and look at what’s going relative to other places…they have really worked hard on religious freedom,” Mr Trump said.
Asked about his position on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the US President said, I don’t want to say anything on that. It is up to India. I hope it will take the right decision for its people.”
At a news conference, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said the new citizenship law did not come up during talks between PM Modi and Mr Trump, noting the two leaders talked about religious harmony in a “positive way”.
“The issue of CAA did not come up, but with regard to what you mentioned, the term religious freedom, there was appreciation from both sides that pluralism and diversity are a common binding factor of both the countries,” he added.
Meanwhile India and the US on Tuesday finalised defence deals worth $3 billion under which 30 military helicopters will be procured from two American defence majors for Indian armed forces.
The announcement on the deals were made by US President Donald Trump after his wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Talking about convergence of interests between the two countries, Modi said he and Trump have decided to raise the India-US ties to the level of a comprehensive global strategic partnership.
Under a $2.6 billion deal, India will buy 24 MH-60 Romeo helicopters from Lockheed Martin for the Indian Navy. Another contract to acquire six AH-64E Apache helicopters for $800 million from aerospace giant Boeing has also been sealed.