WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an Official State Visit to the United States, which will include a state dinner on June 22, the White House announced on Wednesday, May 10. This would be the first State Visit of an Indian leader after then President Barack Obama invited then prime minister Manmohan Singh for a State Visit in November 2009.

President Biden and the First Lady Dr Jill Biden will host Prime Minister Modi for an Official State Visit to the United States June 22, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement while announcing the visit.

“The upcoming visit will affirm the deep and close partnership between the US and India and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together,” she said.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit will strengthen two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific, she said, amid China‘s aggressive behavior in the strategic region.

The visit will also elevate the bilateral strategic technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space, she said.

“The leaders will discuss ways to further expand our educational exchanges and people-to-people ties, as well as our work together to confront common challenges from climate change to workforce development and health security,” she added.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US comes ahead of the G20 summit being hosted by India in September.

After becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi has made more than half a dozen trips to the United States for bilateral and multilateral meetings with all the three American presidents, Obama, Donald Trump and now Biden, but this is for the first time he has been invited for an official State Visit, a privilege accorded to America’s close friends and allies.

He last visited Washington in September 2021 at the invitation of President Biden for a bilateral meeting and also attended the first in-person Quad Leaders Summit.

Modi will join Biden and his counterparts from Australia and Japan at a summit of the Quad leaders in Sydney on May 24 that is expected to focus on implications of the Ukraine conflict and the overall situation in the Indo-Pacific.

Before travelling to Australia, Modi is likely to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima to attend the annual summit of the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies which is scheduled to take place from May 19 to 21.

President Biden will attend the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima as well as the Quad summit in Sydney. Modi’s State Visit is reflective of the importance that the President Biden attaches to his personal relationship with him and the India-US ties. “It is entirely good and proper that the world’s two greatest democracies further cement their strategic, economic, and technology convergence in these turbulent geostrategic times. The State Visit will remind the world that India and America still have so much more potential to capture in our bilateral relations, reflecting the energy and talent of our demographics and our systems, which serve to empower our free peoples,” US-India Business Council president Atul Keshap said. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi met President Biden on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia in November last year. The two leaders also met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Germany in June 2022 and before that in May on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders Summit in Tokyo. Meanwhile, India’s ambassador the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, on May 10 said: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US will show that the partnership between the two nations is people-centric, people-driven, and is good for the world at large”, even as he called the visit “historic.”

“The PM’s forthcoming official state visit to the US, at the invitation of President Biden, is historic. Prime Minister and President Biden have together imparted significantly new vigor and momentum to our bilateral ties,” India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu told PTI. “The visit will be an opportunity for the two leaders to spend time together, take stock of the progress achieved and provide guidance on the future limitless possibilities. The visit will also underscore that India-US partnership is people-centric and people-driven, and that it is not just for the two countries, but for the world at large,” Sandhu said.
(Source: PTI)