US Prez, Indian PM likely to meet in Japan next month

Whoever holds the office of Prime Minister after the current Lok Sabha elections gets over is likely to have a meeting with American President Donald Trump in Japan next month.

The next top level engagement between India and the United States is likely to take place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit, scheduled to take place at Osaka in Japan on June 28 and 29.

The US President is likely to attend the summit which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will host.

New Delhi and Washington D.C. are in touch to explore if the G-20 summit in Japan could be used as an opportunity to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister and the American President. The possibility of the meeting was discussed when Alice Wells, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, visited New Delhi and met senior officials recently, sources told the DH.

Modi visited Washington D.C. and had a meeting with Trump in White House in June 2017. They had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit at Manila in the Philippines in November 2017.

The two leaders did not hold a bilateral meeting over the past one-and-a-half years. They, however, had a trilateral meeting with Abe – the first such huddle by the leaders of Japan, America and India – during the G-20 summit at Buenos Aires in December last year.

The talk, if held, is likely to set the stage for a series of engagements between India and the United States, sources said. External Affairs Minister and Defence Minister of the government that would take office in New Delhi after the LS polls may travel to Washington D.C. later this year to meet with their US counterparts for the second India-America 2+2 dialogue – a new mechanism of engagement launched last year.

The issues related to the trade disputes between India and the US are likely to figure prominently in the meeting between the Prime Minister and the American President. The other issues could be India's concern over-hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan as a result of the peace process with Taliban and the impact of US sanctions on crude oil export from Iran on the energy security of India.