India, Sept. 8 -- A month after NASA invited the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to join its Moon Base programme, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Monday said the United States wants India "by its side" on the lunar surface.

"Make no mistake: we're going back to the Moon, and we want India by our side on the lunar surface," Gor said at the inaugural event of the ninth edition of the Bengaluru Space Exploration.

"The Moon may be our destination, but the engine of this journey is ground-level innovation, right here in our labs, startups, and commercial markets," the ambassador said.

Gor said India was a signatory to the Artemis Accords and that NASA had officially invited Isro to join the Moon Base programme. India joined t...