Washington, 15 November, 2011

The US today said that Gujarat has a very welcoming environment for American business to flourish.

“I think Gujarat has shown itself to be a very welcoming environment for American business to flourish,” Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told reporters in Washington.

“We will continue to promote investment, encourage investment into that State,” he said yesterday.

Blake said the US is now trying to build up its relationship with Indian States.

“We recently have begun an effort to try to enhance state-to-state ties between our two countries – Special Representative Rita Jo Lewis recently made a trip to India with that in mind – because we believe there are quite significant opportunities for individual American states to do more with their Indian counterparts,” Blake said.

“Indeed, there’s quite a lot of dynamism at the state level in India, so we want to just try to capture that, and again, encourage those state-to-state and city-to-city links. So I think you’ll see more of that in our relations over the next several years,” said the US official.

When reporters asked if there is any review of giving visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, black replied,”No, there are no new developments on that.”

The US has previously denied renewal of visa to Modi in past.