Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States is reaching out to Indian member states especially Gujarat but Washington still has no visa policy for its chief minister according to one of the top U.S. diplomats.

Addressing journalists at a special briefing at the State Department, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs said, “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.”

Citing “great importance to working more closely with the states,” Secretary Blake said, “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.”

Secretary Blake projected more U.S. involvement with the Indian states saying, “You’ll see more of that in our relations over the next several years.”

Asked to comment on frequent trips by American businesses to Gujarat, termed a business-friendly state while denying U.S. visa to the chief minister of the state, Secretary Blake denied there were any changes in the U.S. position on the visa application of Narendra Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister saying, “No, there are no new developments on that.”

The U.S., however, looked forward to investing in Gujarat said Blake, saying, “Gujarat itself remains a very important place for American investment.”

“I think it’s shown itself to be a very welcoming environment for American business to flourish,” said Blake, adding, “We’ll continue to promote investment, encourage investment into that state.”

Assistant Secretary Blake returned from a trip to the Maldives as head of the U.S. observer delegation to the 17th Summit of the SAARC which has eight member nations and nine observers.

The U.S. has enjoyed observer nation status since 2007 in SAARC, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

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