Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for the US earlier this morning. During his three-day visit, he will be attending the Quad Leaders’ Summit and address the UN General Assembly.
The meeting of the Quad – a grouping of India, the US, Australia and Japan- comes at an important time amid an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will land in Philadelphia around 10 am local time (7.30 pm IST) and then head to US President Joe Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, where the two leaders will hold bilateral discussions.
Apart from the relationship between the two countries, PM Modi’s visits to Russia and Ukraine and a possible peace process are also likely to be discussed.
An announcement may be made about the India-US space collaboration, under which Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will be travelling to the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission.
A multi-billion dollar deal in which India plans to acquire 31 predator drones from the US will also be discussed, but it is not clear whether the announcement will happen during the PM’s visit.
After the bilateral, PM Modi will attend the Quad summit with Mr Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. White House Spokesperson John Kirby has said China will be high on the agenda.
“In fact, it would be irresponsible if they didn’t talk about the challenges that still exist in the region caused by aggressive People’s Republic of China military action… for instance, unfair trade practices, tensions over the Taiwan Strait… I have no doubt that that all those issues will come up,” he has said.
On Day 2 of his visit, Prime Minister Modi will address a gathering of the Indian community in New York and interact with CEOs of leading companies. Collaboration in cutting-edge areas of artificial intelligence, quantum computing biotechnology and semiconductors will be discussed.
Day 3 will see the Prime Minister addressing the ‘Summit of the Future’ at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23. The theme of the summit is ‘Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’ and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called it a ‘once in a generation UN Summit’.
PM Modi is also likely to hold bilateral discussions with some other world leaders on the sidelines of the UN summit.