Former US president Barack Obama at the New Delhi summit. Photo: Hindustan Times 

Former US president Barack Obama said on Friday that the Pakistani government did not have knowledge about the presence of Osama bin Laden on its soil. 

Obama made the comments during his talk at the second day of the 15th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2017 in New Delhi.

"We had no evidence that Pakistani government was aware of Osama bin Laden?s presence in Abbottabad. We obviously looked at it," he said, according to the Hindustan Times. 

Obama said further that although Pakistan has been a partner of the US in many ways, "it?s also true there are elements that have not been good partners with us". 

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Earlier, he said that after the Mumbai attacks, the "(US) were as obsessed with dismantling the terror network as India... terrorism of any sort, directed at any country metastasises. It eventually affects everyone." 

This was Obama's first appearance in India after stepping out of office in January this year. 

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, Reliance?s Mukesh Ambani and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were in attendance during the talk.