72-year-old US Secretary of State John Kerry is on his fourth visit to India.
US Secretary of State John Kerry today described Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj as a "fierce advocate of India's interest and its citizens." One, he said, who has never wavered from her belief about the importance of India-US relations.
Speaking jointly with the minister to the press after the day-long second India-US Strategic Dialogue, Mr Kerry warmly referred, more than once, to Ms Swaraj by her first name and thanked her for "thoughtful dialogue and partnership."
"In two years of working together I have to say that you have always lived up to your reputation as a fierce advocate for India's interest and for its citizens. I know that you have never wavered from your beliefs about the importance of strengthening the relations between India and the United States," he said.
The 72-year-old Mr Kerry, who is on his fourth visit to India, said the relationship between India and the US was very different today than it was when he had come here as a senator in the 1990s. "I have experience a time when we were struggling to come out of Cold War, and struggling to build a relationship. But in the last two years I must say that there has been no sense of that."
He said India and US have moved amazingly on this relationship. "And the evidence of that is the military logistics agreement (LEMOA) and the cyber agreement. We have topped 15 billion dollars in defence and trade agreements," he said.
Mr Swaraj thanked Mr Kerry for his country's continued support on India's attempts to get a seat on United Nations Security Council.
She said they had had found common ground on global terrorism, agreeing that "no nation should adopt double standards on terrorism such as differentiating between good terrorists and bad terrorists."
"We reaffirmed the urgent necessity for Pakistan to dismantle safe havens for terrorists and criminal networks including Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-e Mohammad and D Company," the minister said, adding that "Secretary Kerry and I also agreed that Pakistan should act to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot terrorist attacks to justice quickly."
US Secretary of State is on a three-day visit to India and his next public engagement will be an address to the students of the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi on Wednesday.