Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Joe Biden at the White House in his first bilateral meeting with the US President. The two leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of priority issues, including combating Covid-19, climate change, economic cooperation as well as Afghanistan.
While the two leaders have met earlier when Biden was the Vice President of the country, this is for the first time that Biden is meeting Modi after he became the 46th president of the US.
Both Biden and Modi have spoken over the phone multiple times and have attended a few virtual summits, including that of the Quad in March hosted by the US president.
“This morning I’m hosting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House for a bilateral meeting. I look forward to strengthening the deep ties between our two nations, working to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific, and tackling everything from COVID-19 to climate change,” President Biden tweeted just ahead of the meeting.
Modi had said his visit would be an occasion to strengthen the Indo-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest with President Biden.
Among the issues also include discussion about new areas of cooperation, said a senior administration official on the eve of the India-US bilateral summit.
After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in mid-August, India has been saying that its focus was to ensure that the war-torn country’s soil is not used for terrorist activities against it.Shringla said the importance of smooth post-Covid travel, especially for students, is also an important factor and is expected to be discussed at the talks.
Biden and Modi are likely to be joined by their senior officials, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary Shringla, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. Following the bilateral summit, Biden in the afternoon would welcome Modi again at the White House for the first-ever in-person Quad summit.
