PM Modi leaves for US for first meet with Biden; second foreign tour since pandemic

PM's visit to Washington DC and New York is going to be his second foreign tour after the onset of Covid-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave New Delhi on Wednesday for a visit to the United States.

The Prime Minister’s visit to Washington DC and New York is going to be his second foreign tour after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. He had visited Bangladesh on March 26 and 27 – almost a year after the pandemic forced him to suspend all overseas tours. He will return to New Delhi on Sunday.

Modi will hold a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington DC on Friday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla told journalists in New Delhi.

This is going to be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders after Biden took over as the US President on January 20. They, however, spoke to each other over the phone in February and April. Both the leaders also took part in several plurilateral video conferences over the past few months.

A senior official of the Biden Administration told journalists in Washington DC that the Prime Minister’s meeting with the US President would be “an opportunity” for the two sides to further strengthen the global partnership between the two nations, which shared the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. They will discuss ways to step up bilateral cooperation to deal with Covid-19 and the climate crisis.

They will also discuss counterterrorism cooperation and the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power last month through a military campaign taking advantage of the withdrawal of the US troops.

The Prime Minister will also attend the first in-person summit of the Quad on Friday. The summit will be hosted by the US President and attended by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia.

Modi will address the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the headquarters of the international organization in New York on Saturday.