New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs, on Thursday, declined to confirm any potential meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former US President Donald Trump, during his visit to the United States. Earlier this week, Trump claimed Prime Minister Modi will meet him next week during his upcoming three-day visit to the US.
Speaking on Tuesday at his first public appearance following the recent apparent assassination attempt, Trump said Modi will meet him next week when he is in the US. "So when India, which is a very big abuser. He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he's fantastic. I mean, fantastic man. A lot of these leaders are fantastic," Trump said.
However, when the same was asked during a special briefing of MEA in New Delhi, Foreign Secretary of India, Vikram Misri did not confirm but said, "There are many meetings with the Prime Minister right now which we are trying to fix. Right now, I will not be able to tell you about any specific meeting, whether the meeting has been fixed or not." However, he said the ministry is looking from all angles as to how much time the Prime Minister has and with whom he could hold meetings. "We will keep updating you about the meetings," added Misri.
The remarks by Misri came during a briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States for the upcoming Quad summit. Elaborating on the events which will be taking place in the US during PM Modi's visit, Misri said, "PM Modi will be visiting the US from September 21-23. This visit combines very important aspects. It has very important bilateral aspect to it, very important plurilateral aspects to it and equally important multilateral aspect to it. There will be interaction with a variety of foreign partners at the level of the Prime Minister. There will be interaction with the large Indian diaspora in the US. And there will be engagement with a host of business and industry leaders, amongst others."
He added, "PM's first talk will be in Wilmington, Delaware, which is the hometown of President Joe Biden. That is also the venue of this sixth Quad summit..." Misri further informed that from Wilmington, the PM will travel to New York, to attend the Summit of the Future. He said, "He (PM Modi) will also have a number of engagements throughout these three days. On September 21, there will be Quad summit; the bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Quad summit. A special event on the sidelines of Quad summit will be Cancer Moonshot event. On September 22, PM will have an interaction with the Indian diaspora. This is being organised by the community in Long Island, New York..."
(With inputs from agency)
