Even though former US President Donald Trump claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meeting him in New York during his three day US visit, PM Modi never really had any meetings planned with either Trump or Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris. PM Modi is on his way back home after attending the QUAD summit and speaking at “Future of UN” summit.
PM Modi’s brief trip was of about 55 hours packed with activities and meetings with Joe Biden, and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia and Fumio Kishida of Japan.
The External Affairs Ministry and PMO were actually caught by surprise with Donald Trump’s claim of meeting PM Modi as he had not sought any meeting with either Trump or Vice President Harris.
“India is absolutely comfortable with either Democrats or Republicans coming to power. This is a bipartisan relationship since the time of Bill Clinton and the two countries are constantly in touch with each other with deep convergence on bilateral issues. PM Modi has no desire to promote one candidate against the other as this would be construed as election interference in a poll bound country,” said a former foreign secretary.
On Sunday, PM Modi addressed the Indian diaspora in New York, and he had some time later in the day for meetings. Later on the day, PM Modi met with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, and Kuwait Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid.
There were media speculations about another meeting: Between PM Modi and Mohammad Yunus, the de facto prime Minister of Bangladesh, on the sidelines of the United Nations Summit of the Future. But that didn’t happen either.
Asked at his news conference about the meeting that wasn’t to be, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said,”The Prime Minister is leaving in a few minutes from now. The chief advisor of Bangladesh is not here yet, so there hasn’t been any possibility of a meeting on this occasion.”
