Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first official visit to the US from 21 to 23 June will be a “milestone” in Indo-US relationship during which Modi will have a rare honour to address the US Congress for the second time, and bilateral defence industrial cooperation sees progress.
Briefing mediapersons on the prime minister’s visit, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Monday said defence cooperation has been a critical pillar of Indo-US bilateral relationship and during this visit, progress on defence industrial cooperation is expected, not just on co-production and co-development, but on allowing a “more intense” interaction between the two defence eco-systems.
“The PM is visiting the US on 21st through 23rd of June on the invitation of the US President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden,” Kwatra said. This will be Prime Minister Modi’s first official State visit to the United States.
Ahead of the visit, he said, India and the US saw high-level interactions including the visit of US National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to New Delhi.
PM Modi’s visit will commence in New York, where he will lead celebrations of the International Day of Yoga at the United Nations Headquarters on 21 June. In December 2014, the UN General Assembly had adopted a resolution proclaiming 21 June as the International Day of Yoga.
PM Modi will thereafter travel to Washington DC, where he will get a ceremonial welcome at the White House on 22 June, and meet President Biden to continue their high-level dialogue. PM Modi will also address a joint sitting of the US Congress on 22 June.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host a State Dinner in honour of the Prime Minister the same evening.
The PM has earlier visited the US six times, both in bilateral capacity and on multilateral events. While in New York, he will meet a cross section of prominent personalities and leaders. On 21st June itself he departed for Washington.
In terms of the substantial context of the US visit, Kwatra said this is a significant visit, a visit on which there is genuine and widespread deep interest in the US. A Key component will be the leadership connection during the visit.
PM Modi will be among the rare few world leaders to be accorded the honour to address the US Congress more than once. Clearly, another key context in the Indo-US relationship which has continued, is a strong and widespread degree of bipartisan support in the US Congress to the strengthening of this relationship.
Another component of the visit will be trade and investment partnership. The bilateral trade is touching close to 200 billion USD, with a strong flow of capital on both sides. There will be a technology component which interfaces with many other domains, telecom, Space, and manufacturing domain.
The Indian diaspora in the US is close to five million and has been a strong driver of the bilateral relationship. The Prime Minister will have an interface with the diaspora.
After the US visit, the prime minister will have his first State visit to Egypt on 24-25 June. “We do expect and are confident that the visit of PM Modi to Egypt will not just ensure continuing momentum to the relationship between our two countries, but will also help it expand to new areas of trade and economic engagement between our two countries,” Kwatra said.