10 May,2023 08:49 PM IST | Washington | PTI
Representative Picture/File
President Joe Biden will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an Official State Visit to the United States, which will include a state dinner, on June 22, the White House announced on Wednesday.
This would be the first State Visit of an Indian leader after then president Barack Obama invited then prime minister Manmohan Singh for a State Visit in November 2009.
President Biden and the First Lady Dr Jill Biden will host Prime Minister Modi for an Official State Visit to the United States June 22, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement while announcing the visit.
"The upcoming visit will affirm the deep and close partnership between the US and India and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together," she said.
Prime Minister Modi's visit will strengthen two countries' shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific, she said, amid China's aggressive behaviour in the strategic region.
The visit will also elevate the bilateral strategic technology partnership, including in defence, clean energy, and space, she said.
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"The leaders will discuss ways to further expand our educational exchanges and people-to-people ties, as well as our work together to confront common challenges from climate change, to workforce development and health security," she added.
Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US comes ahead of the G20 summit being hosted by India in September.
After becoming the Prime Minister in 2014, Modi has made more than half a dozen trips to the United States for bilateral and multilateral meetings with all the three American presidents, Obama, Donald Trump and now Biden, but this is for the first time he has been invited for an official State Visit, a privilege accorded to America's close friends and allies.
He last visited Washington in September 2021 at the invitation of President Biden for a bilateral meeting and also attended the first in-person Quad Leaders Summit.
Modi will join Biden and his counterparts from Australia and Japan at a summit of the Quad leaders in Sydney on May 24 that is expected to focus on implications of the Ukraine conflict and the overall situation in the Indo-Pacific.
Before travelling to Australia, Modi is likely to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima to attend the annual summit of the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies which is scheduled to take place from May 19 to 21.
President Biden will attend the G7 leaders' summit in Hiroshima as well as the Quad summit in Sydney.
Modi's State Visit is reflective of the importance that the President Biden attaches to his personal relationship with him and the India-US ties.
"It is entirely good and proper that the world's two greatest democracies further cement their strategic, economic, and technology convergence in these turbulent geostrategic times. The State Visit will remind the world that India and America still have so much more potential to capture in our bilateral relations, reflecting the energy and talent of our demographics and our systems, which serve to empower our free peoples," US-India Business Council president Atul Keshap said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Modi met President Biden on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia in November last year. The two leaders also met on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Germany in June, 2022 and before that in May on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders Summit in Tokyo.
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