US Former President Barack Obama spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday as he called world leaders he worked closely with over his years in the White House…

Obama was among the first word leaders to call Modi on his election in 2014, when he invited the prime minister to visit the US, ending in one stroke weeks of speculation about how Modi will travel to the US, having being denied a visa in 2005.
Obama and Modi had developed what officials on both sides said was a good working relationship. They spoke often — to touch base, as the White House once said — and met frequently, more than seven times, according to the last count.

Before their September 2014 meeting, the two leaders co-authored an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, laying out their joint vision for the relationship. It was titled “Chalen Saath Saath: forward, we go together”.

From their first meeting in September 2014 at the White House, when Obama greeted Modi in Gujarati, they developed an easy working relationship, calling each other by their first names in public, a routine western practice rare for an Indian leader.

They would go on to meet frequently, almost twice or more on the sidelines of world meetings of the US and multilateral meetings, with three bilateral state visits, two in Washington DC — 2014 and 2016 — and one in New Delhi, 2015.

That was the leap that led to speculation in the next few months of the two countries considering joint naval patrol in those waters in an obvious challenge to the Chinese, who have litigated their case in the region with unbridled aggression.