New Delhi:
PM Narendra Modi reached US in the wee hours of Tuesday morning for his second bilateral visit to the country. After Modi arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Washington DC, he was greeted by his supporters at the Base Andrews. Modi afterwards visited Arlington cemetery, most famous cemetery in the US which is a final resting place for some of its greatest heroes and laid wreath at Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial. He also paid homage to Indian-American astronaut late Kalpana Chawla.
At Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial, PM Modi also briefly interacted with the family of Chawla and some of the senior officials of NASA. On this occasion, Modi was accompanied by US defense secretary Ashton Carter.
During this visit, Modi is slated to hold bilateral talks with US President Barack Obama and he will also address the joint session of the US Congress. A spectrum of issues ranging from security to defence will be discussed during this two-day visit.
PM Modi met representatives of several prominent US think-tanks to understand how they look at global trends and challenges and what India and the US can do together for the world.
“Had a wonderful interaction with leading think-tanks,” the Prime Minister tweeted after his meeting with representatives of the think-tanks.
The thinks-tank that were represented at the meeting were Brookings Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, Center for American Progress, Atlantic Council, Hudson Institute, Center for National Interest, Global Energy Capital, Carnegie Endowment, Asia Group, Pew Research Center, the US Institute of Peace and Foundation for Defence of Democracies.
“The aim of the interaction was to understand from them, how they see global trends in the coming years, the challenges and what US and India could do together for the world, keeping in mind among the templates that the Prime Minister has articulated. What can US and India do together for the world...was really the theme,” Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh told reporters.
“Current global issues were discussed in the medium and longer term perspective. And we looked at opportunities and ways to be able to work together...in a way that would meet India’s national interest and of course would be of interest to the US,” Singh said and denied that this exercise was undertaken as part of perception management drive.
The Ambassador said that Prime Minister shared his thoughts at the end of the meeting. Based on the feedback he receives from people and think-tanks in the US, Singh said there is a very very positive assessment of the reforms that have taken place in the last two years.
“And you have to just look at the facts that US equity investment in India is USD 12 billion today and FDI flows into India went up by 50 per cent. So if you just look at facts, you can see that there is a recognition of the tremendous amount of progress that has taken place in India in the last two years,” he said.
(With Inputs from PTI)
