Modi to visit US on June 25, will meet Trump the next day
Brushing aside any hint of bilateral tension between India and US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has finalised his programme to visit Washington later this month.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump made some harsh remarks against India while exiting the Paris Climate Treaty.
Notwithstanding Trump’s statement, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Monday said Modi would be visiting Washington on June 25 and 26 on the invitation of the US President and would meet him on the second day of his two-day official visit.
The meeting will be the first one-on-one between the two heads of states.
Trump had alleged that countries like India had signed the Paris treaty for taking billions and billions and billions of dollars in aid from America to provide for climate change. “They are doubling their coal production but America was supposed to get rid of its coal plants,” Trump had said in his complaint against India. Trump had also put India in the category of leading polluters of the world.
Modi, while on a trip abroad, had instantly reacted to Trump saying India’s commitment for climate change and for cleaner world was genuine and was not due to any other consideration.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had hinted at Modi’s US visit last week during her press meet with the media here but had not divulged much details. She had only said the H-1B visa issue for Indian students would be one of the issues likely to be raised by Modi.
“The visit would provide a new direction for deeper bilateral engagement on issues of mutual interests and consolidation of multi-dimensional partnership between India and the US,” the MEA said.