US committed to strengthening defense, economic ties with India to seek peaceful, prosperous world: Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden said that the United States is committed to strengthening the defense, economic, and people-to-people ties with India to together seek a peaceful and prosperous world.

Biden spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a virtual meeting ahead of the 2+2 dialogue between the two countries.

"I spoke today with Prime Minister Modi of India. We committed to strengthening our defense, economic, and people-to-people relationship to together seek a peaceful and prosperous world" Biden tweeted on Monday (local time).

In a virtual meeting with PM Modi, Biden said that he is looking forward to meeting him during Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) summit in Japan on May 24.

"It's always good to see you. I am looking forward to seeing you in Japan on 24th May (Quad summit)," Biden said.

Biden said the US and India share a strong and growing "major defence partnership"."We take the same concerns about the global challenges we face for COVID-19, advancing health security and tracking the climate crisis and we share a strong and growing major defence partnership," he added.

The US President also referred to the Ukraine conflict and said India and the US will continue close consultation on how to manage the destabilising effects of "Russian war".

"I want to welcome India's humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine, who are suffering a horrific assault, including a tragic shelling in a train station last week that killed dozens of innocent children and women and civilians attempting to flee the violence," he said."

The United States and India are going to continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilizing effects of this Russian war," he added.

Biden said at the root of the bilateral partnership is a deep connection between "our people, ties of the family of friendship and of shared values".

A virtual summit of Quad leaders was held in March amid Russia's military action in Ukraine.

Quad Leaders - Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, and President Joe Biden of the United States took part in the summit.

(ANI)