Obama considers Modi good friend: WH

US President Barack Obama considers Prime Minister Narendra Modi a good friend and the two countries have collaborated on a number of projects, the White House said today.

"We are in close contact with the government of India. President Obama considers Prime Minister Modi a good friend. We've collaborated on a number of projects," White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz told reporters at his daily press conference.

Schultz was responding to a question on Chinese aggressive behaviour on South China Sea.

"Most recently, most notably the agreement that the United States worked with India on, allowed for the Paris climate deal to happen. So the president is enormously proud of that work. He is also enormously grateful to Prime Minister Modi for his work on that," Schultz said.

"But that's not the only facet of our relationship. Obviously, we have economic ties, deep security ties. So the president deeply values his relationship with Prime Minister Modi," he said in response to a question.