Washington: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the US to woo American investors, the White House said President Barack Obama would work closely with him to expand economic opportunity for both Americans and Indians. "There are any number of reasons why the President would work closely with his counterpart, Prime Minister Modi," on strengthening India-US economic ties, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.

Modi, who arrived in New York Wednesday, is set to hold his third summit with Obama within a year next Monday after meeting investors in New York and tech leaders at Silicon Valley giants like Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Tesla among others. When Obama travelled to India in January, "there was much discussion of the important economic ties between our two countries," Earnest said in response to a question about the just concluded first India-US strategic and commercial dialogue.