Modi Trump may meet in Manila this month

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have a bilateral meeting with American President Donald Trump in Manila to review the progress in bilateral ties since they met in Washington DC in June this year.

Both Modi and Trump will be in Manila on November 12 and 13 to attend the ASEAN-India and ASEAN-US summits, which will be hosted by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. Modi will also take part in the East Asia Summit, which Trump, however, will give a miss.

The US President will also visit Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and China. Though the itinerary of his 12-day-tour in Asia does not include India, Trump is likely to have a meeting with Modi in Manila.

As they will meet less than a fortnight after the terror attack in New York, India-US cooperation to combat terrorism is likely to figure prominently in Prime Minister's meeting with American President.

Trump spoke to Modi over phone and accepted his condolences for the death of eight people in the terrorist attack at Manhattan in New York on Tuesday. Modi strongly condemned terrorism, and offered thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families, according to a statement issued by the White House. Modi and Trump resolved that India and the US would "continue to fight together against the global scourge of terrorism".

Sources told the DH that Modi and Trump would discuss ways to step up counter-terrorism cooperation an issue, which figured prominently during the first meeting of the two leaders at the White House on June 27 too. It was on the top of the agenda during the visits of US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to New Delhi in September and October recently.

Both Mattis and Tillerson endorsed New Delhi's view that Islamabad must deny the terrorists safe havens in Pakistan and stop allowing them to use bases in Pakistan to carry out terror attacks in Afghanistan and India..