US 'looks forward' to working with president-elect Ram Nath Kovind

WASHINGTON: The United States has congratulated president-elect Ram Nath Kovind on his electoral victory and said that it "looks forward" to working with him on regional and global issues.

Kovind, a low-key lawyer-turned-politician, was yesterday elected as India's 14th President, the first BJP member and the second Dalit to occupy the country's highest office.

"We want to congratulate the president-elect Ram Nath Kovind on his victory," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters yesterday.

Noting that the US and India have a "deep and growing strategic partnership", she said: "We look forward to working with president-elect on regional and global issues."

Nauert credited the close people-to-people contact between the world's two largest democracies and "our shared democratic values" with the type of partnership they share.

A former Bihar governor, Kovind, 71, defeated the joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker.