Congress delegation led by Sonia Gandhi formally called on Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on Monday afternoon, after the US first couple attended India’s Republic Day Celebrations.
Accompanying her were Congress party members including the party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
While Rahul Gandhi was keen to know the emergence of ISIS and the impact of the ongoing war against terrorism on the global economy, Singh reiterated the Congress’ commitment to reforms with a human face.
“We discussed wide ranging issues. It was warm and cordial meeting,” said senior Congress leader Anand Sharma, who was also a member in the delegation. Sharma said Obama appreciated the ‘fact’ that it was Singh government that was the ‘original authors’ of a number of measures, including the civilian nuclear deal that cemented the ties between the two countries on Sunday.
“The ruling BJP was engaged in sabotaging such measures when they were in Opposition. Obama mentioned the efforts of the Congress to strengthen the Indo-US partnership,” Sharma added.
After the meeting, the Obamas were at Rashtrapati Bhavan attending ‘At Home’ function hosted by the President Pranab Mukherjee.
The American President then attended the India-US CEO Forum followed by India-US Business Summit along with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mocktail cancelled Obama’s hectic scheduled resulted in cancellation of the mocktail being hosted by the American embassy at ITC Maurya’s rooftop restaurant Westview in honour of the first couple of the US.
Over 100 global CEOs, including Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi, were on the guest list for the mocktail.