India, US stress strategic ties but tensions remain

US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the media as India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (R) looks on during their joint news conference New Delhi July 31, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

New Delhi has insisted it must see more progress on a parallel pact giving it more freedom to subsidise and stockpile food grains than is allowed by World Trade Organization rules.

For its part, India on Thursday, raised the issue of US surveillance activities, with Sushma saying such acts were "unacceptable" and had caused resentment in her country.

According to a document leaked by former US security contractor Edward Snowden and published by the Washington Post earlier this year, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was among a handful of political organisations a US court allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on.

Kerry said it was not US practice to comment on intelligence matters but added: "We fully respect and understand the feelings expressed by the minister."

The Obama administration sees India as a key strategic counter-balance in Asia to an increasingly assertive China and has been seeking to revive ties since Modi's election in May.

The relationship took a dive last year after an Indian diplomat was arrested in New York on charges of mistreating her domestic help, an episode that provoked outrage in New Delhi.

Modi himself was banned from visiting the United States after Hindu mobs killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, in 2002 while he was chief minister of his home state of Gujarat.

Kerry said the visa ban was from another time.

"It wasn't me," he said in an interview with India's NDTV network. "Different government, this is a different government."

Kerry said Modi would be welcomed in Washington "no questions whatsoever."

"We want a new relationship. We want to see things move in a very positive way," he said.

Related: India summons US envoy over spying claim