Washington/New Delhi, Feb. 14 -- US President Donald Trump described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "great friend" and added that the two leaders have kept the relationship going during the four years Trump was out of office.

Answering questions during a media interaction ahead of their talks in the White House, President Trump said: "Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine; we've had a wonderful relationship, and we've kept the relationship during the four-year period (when he was out of office). And that was a very interesting period indeed. We've started off again, and we have some very big things to talk about.

"They (India) are going to be purchasing more of our oil and gas, we have more oil and gas than any other country i...