File photo of PM Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi predicted a deepening of ties with the United States ahead of a landmark trip to Washington, saying the world's two largest democracies were natural allies.
PM Modi is to meet President Barack Obama at the White House on September 29 and 30 on his first visit to the US as premier and since he was denied a visa following the riots in his home state of Gujarat 12 years ago.
Bilateral ties were also badly damaged last year by a row over the arrest and strip-search of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.
In an interview with CNN,
excerpts of which were released on Friday, PM Modi acknowledged there had been "ups and downs in our relationship" but said that both countries shared common values.
"India and the USA are bound together, by history and culture. These ties will deepen further," said PM Modi in his first television interview since his BJP won a landslide majority in May.
PM Modi said that the United States' history of immigrant absorption and the vast Indian diaspora showed the people of both countries were inherently tolerant.
"America has absorbed people from around the world, and there is an Indian in every part of the world," said 64-year-old PM Modi.
"This characterises both the societies. Indians and Americans have co-existence in their natural temperament," he added.
PM Modi's visit to Washington caps a remarkable turnaround after he was placed on a US visa blacklist in the aftermath of the sectarian riots in Gujarat in 2002 soon after he came to power as the state's chief minister.
The Obama administration has been heavily courting PM Modi since he ousted the Congress party in May. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel have both met PM Modi in Delhi in recent weeks.
The visit to the US is part of frenzy of diplomatic activity by PM Modi who hosted China's President Xi Jinping for talks in India this week.