United States Speaker Paul Ryan, who met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday, condemned the incident in which an Indian engineer was shot dead in Kansas City on February 23, PTI reported. Jaishankar is in the US to discuss issues like counter-terrorism and bilateral relations with the officials from the Donald Trump administration.

“I expressed the House’s condolences on the death of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was senselessly murdered last week in Kansas,” Ryan said in a statement after meeting Jaishankar. “Our people must continue to stand together.”

He said the relationship between the US and India is “rooted in shared values of democracy and freedom”. In their meeting, the two officials are believed to have discussed ways to enhance economic and defence cooperation.

Jaishankar, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday, also met US National Security Advisor Lt General HR McMaster to discuss issues on counter-terrorism.

On Tuesday, the White House had said that the Kansas shooting was an “act of racially motivated hatred”. “We want to reiterate that the president condemns these or any other racially or religiously motivated attacks in the strongest terms,” the White House said after the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the incident was a hate crime.

Kuchibhotla was shot dead at a Kansas City bar on February 23 by a Navy veteran, Adam Puriton. His friend Alok Madasani and another American friend, Ian Grillot were also shot at by Puriton. Eyewitnesses at Austin’s Bar and Grill had heard Adam Puriton shout “Get out of my country” before he started shooting at the men, whom he had believed were Arabs.