New Delhi, Jun 13 (DHNS): The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on June 26.
The meeting is going to be the first top-level engagement between India and the US after the new administration took over in Washington.
“Their discussions will provide a new direction for deeper bilateral engagement on issues of mutual interest and consolidation of the multi-dimensional strategic partnership,” said Gopal Baglay, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Modi’s last visit was in June 2016. He met Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama eight times – in Washington, New Delhi and elsewhere on the sidelines of multilateral conclaves. Modi hosted Obama in New Delhi in January 2015, when the then US president was the chief guest at the Republic Day ceremony.
The meeting will take place a few weeks after the US President caused unease in New Delhi by alleging that India had made its participation in the Paris Agreement “contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries”.
Trump made the allegation while announcing his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement – a United Nations accord signed by 195 countries at the COP21 climate conference in the capital of France in December 2015.
New Delhi sharply rejected the allegation, with Modi recalling India’s millennia-old commitment to the environment. Also, earlier this year, New Delhi had strongly rejected a proposal by the US Administration to mediate between India and Pakistan.
A source told DH that Modi would nudge Trump to take a hard-line stand on cross-border terror emanating from Pakistan and hitting not only India but also Afghanistan. He would urge Trump to stop the flow of US aid to Pakistan till Islamabad shed its selective approach in combatting terror, the source said.
The prime minister would also convey to the US president New Delhi’s concerns over the executive order he signed a few months ago for a review of the H1B visa regime – a move that could affect Indian Information Technology professionals working in America.