President Biden to host PM Modi for Official State Visit to US on June 22: White House

Biden will travel to New Delhi for the G20 summit, which Modi will host on September 9 and 10 next

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Washington DC for an official state visit on June 22 on an invitation from United States President Joe Biden.

The governments of India and the US formally announced the visit both in New Delhi and Washington DC on Wednesday. Biden will host a state dinner in honour of Modi.

With New Delhi continuing to maintain the strategic balance in its ties with Moscow and Washington DC, the prime minister’s visit to the US has been scheduled just about a couple of weeks before he would host Russian President Vladimir Putin for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in New Delhi on July 3 and 4. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as well as other leaders of the SCO, which was originally floated as a counterweight to NATO, are also expected o attend the summit.

Biden, himself, will travel to New Delhi for the G20 summit, which Modi will host on September 9 and 10 next.

Modi had visited the US several times after taking over as the prime minister of India in May 2014. But most of his visits had either been official or on the sidelines of the multilateral or plurilateral meetings.

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Donald Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, however, had hosted a dinner and a lunch for him at the White House in September 2014 and June 2016.

The prime minister’s state visit to Washington DC on June 22 thus is going to be his first. This is also going to be his second visit to Washington DC after Biden succeeded Trump in January 2021.

The successive US presidents had in the past hosted state dinners in the White House for several prime ministers of India – Jawaharlal Nehru in 1949 and 1963, Indira Gandhi in 1971 and 1982, Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2000 and Manmohan Singh in 2005 and 2009.

“The upcoming visit will affirm the deep and close partnership between the United States and India and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the spokesperson of the White House, said in a statement issued in Washington D.C. “The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and our shared resolve to elevate our strategic technology partnership, including in defence, clean energy, and space.”

She said that Biden and Modi would 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.

Modi and Biden will also explore ways to strengthen India-US collaboration in plurilateral and multilateral fora, including in the G20. They would reflect on their shared vision for a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific and discuss opportunities to expand and consolidate the engagement within the framework of the Quad, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in New Delhi. “This historic visit offers a valuable opportunity for India and the US to further deepen a comprehensive and forward-looking global strategic partnership.”

Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, stated that the visit would underscore the growing importance of the strategic partnership between India and the US as the two nations collaborate across numerous sectors. “The leaders will have the opportunity to review strong bilateral cooperation in various areas of mutual interest, including technology, trade, industry, education, research, clean energy, defence, security, healthcare, and deepening people-to-people connections,” he added.