E-Paper
PM Modi reaches US, to meet Kamala Harris, global CEOs on packed Day 1
PM Modi also has separate meetings scheduled with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga on Thursday. He is visiting the US for the seventh time after assuming office in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday local time arrived in Washington, DC for his three-day visit to the United States. The Prime Minister has a packed schedule from the very first day of the visit, during which he will meet US President Joe Biden and also address the United Nations General Assembly.
PM Modi was received by US department of state officials at Joint Base Andrews upon his arrival. He was welcomed by India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, along with the defence attache including Brigadier Anoop Singhal, Air Commodore Anjan Bhadra and naval attache Commodore Nirbhaya Bapna.
Despite heavy rain, a significant number of Indian Americans were also there at the air force base to welcome PM Modi.
Here is the schedule of PM Modi on Thursday:
• PM Modi will meet US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The meeting is expected to last for about an hour.
• "I am also looking forward to meeting Vice President Kamala Harris to explore opportunities for cooperation between our two nations particularly in the area of science and technology," PM Modi said on Wednesday, just before leaving for the US.
• This will be the first meeting between the two leaders. Harris had earlier spoken with Modi over the phone in June during the Covid-19 crisis. She is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President of the United States.
• Separate meetings with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga are also scheduled on Thursday. Both are the members of the Quarilateral Security Alliance or Quad.
• He will also meet global CEOs on the same day in Washington DC. One-on-one meetings are planned with Cristiano E Amon from Qualcomm, Shantanu Narayen from Adobe, Mark Widmar from First Solar, Vivek Lall from General Atomics and Stephen A Schwarzman from Blackstone.
• The prime minister travelled to the US on the recently-inducted custom-made Boeing 777 aircraft.
• This is Prime Minister Modi's first visit abroad beyond the neighbourhood since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
• Before leaving for the US, PM Modi on Wednesday said that his visit will be an occasion to strengthen the strategic partnership with the United States, Japan and Australia.
• All of PM Modi's previous visits had his signature massive meetings with the Indian-American community, like the Madison Square Garden event in 2015, and thereafter in the Silicon Valley and the last one was Houston in 2019. However, because of Covid-19 restrictions, no large event for the Prime Minister has been planned.
• PM Modi is visiting the US for the seventh time after assuming office in 2014.
