Outgoing US envoy meets Modi

New Delhi, Jan 20: Ahead of his departure from here, outgoing US Ambassador to India Richard Verma called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday and discussed a range of issues and the progress made in the bilateral relationship."It was a pleasure to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today on the last day of my tenure as US Ambassador to India," Verma said in a statement after the meeting. "We spoke about a range of issues, and the substantial progress we have made in the US-India relationship over the past two years," he said. "We discussed bilateral accomplishments in the area of clean energy, trade, defence, and people-to-people ties, as well as the broader benefits that our efforts have brought to the world." Verma said both he and Modi reflected on the latter s address to a joint session of US Congress last year, US President Barack Obama s visit to India as chief guest at India s Republic Day celebrations in 2015, and agreed that the US-India relationship was stronger than ever. "I thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership and vision and said a personal farewell," he stated.Verma, who presented his credentials to President Pranab Mukherjee in Rashtrapati Bhavan in January 2015, is the first Indian-origin person to be appointed US Ambassador to India.