PM Modi leaves for home after concluding ‘successful’ & ‘substantial’ visit to US

PTI, Sep 24, 2024, 8:24 AM IST

Credit: X / @narendramodi

New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for home after wrapping up his “successful and substantial” three-day visit to the US during which he attended the Quad Leaders’ meeting, an overwhelming Indian community event and addressed the Summit of the Future at the UN General Assembly.

He also held bilateral meetings on Sunday with his Japanese and Australian counterparts on the sidelines of the Quad Summit and exchanged views to deepen bilateral cooperation further for mutual benefits and the ‘peace, stability, and prosperity’ of the Indo-Pacific region.

“PM @narendramodi emplanes for New Delhi after concluding a successful and substantial visit to the USA,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a post on X.

Modi arrived in the US on Friday and on Day 1, he attended the Quad Leaders’ meeting in Wilmington, Delaware.

Hosted by President Joe Biden, the Quad Leaders’ Summit took place on Saturday in his hometown Wilmington, Delaware. It was attended by Prime Minister Modi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan.

In a rare gesture, Biden also hosted Modi for a bilateral meeting in his home, and the Quad summit was held at the Archmere Academy in Wilmington.

During their meeting, US President Biden welcomed the progress made towards India sealing procurement of 31 long-endurance MQ-9B armed drones from American defence major General Atomics, as he and Prime Minister Modi vowed to boost reciprocal supply of military hardware between the two sides.

Modi also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Australia and Japan on the sidelines of the summit.

Also, with the United States, a very special feature of the bilateral meeting was the return of 297 antiquities to India, a few of which were on display at Biden’s residence during the meeting.

At the Quad Leadership Summit and others associated with it, Prime Minister Modi underlined India’s approach of cooperation, contact, and engagement for growth with a variety of partners in the Indo-Pacific.

Also, during the summit, the leaders announced the Quad Cancer Moonshot, a groundbreaking partnership to save lives in the Indo-Pacific region.

India pledged USD 7.5 million to combat cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Quad nations also announced a new regional Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI), to enable their partners in the region to maximise tools provided through Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) and other Quad partner initiatives to monitor and secure their waters, enforce their laws, and deter unlawful behaviour.

After wrapping up the Quad Leaders’ meeting in Wilmington, Modi left on Saturday for New York for Day 2 to attend an Indian community event at Long Island and later address a key conclave at the United Nations on Day 3.

On Saturday, Modi addressed a mega gathering of Indian-Americans at the Nassau Coliseum in New York.

Terming India as a “land of opportunities”, Prime Minister Modi told the gathering that he has set very ambitious goals for the country during his third term.

During the event, he also announced that India will open two new consulates in Boston and Los Angeles, meeting the long-pending demand of the fast-growing Indian American community in these two large American cities.

While Boston is considered the education and pharma capital of the US, Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, is hosting the next summer Olympics and current US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti is the city’s former mayor.

The event was attended by more than 13,000 Indian-Americans. While the majority of them were from the New York and New Jersey area, Indian-Americans came in from 40 states, organisers said. Sixty charter buses were used for transportation purposes.

Applauding the role of Indian-Americans in strengthening the relationship between India and the US, he called them India’s brand ambassadors.

After the event, Prime Minister Modi participated in a “fruitful” roundtable with the CEOs of leading American tech companies where he emphasised India’s growth prospects and discussed initiatives to foster bilateral collaborations across various sectors.

The meeting took place at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel on Sunday during the second leg of Modi’s three-day US visit. It saw the participation of CEOs of major US-based firms working on cutting-edge technologies such as AI, quantum computing and semiconductors.

He urged CEOs of US majors to take advantage of India’s growth story as the country is making all efforts to become the third largest economy in the world in his third term.

On Day 3, Prime Minister Modi addressed the UN’s Summit of the Future and said that the “success of humanity lies in our collective strength, not on the battlefield”.

Addressing world leaders from the iconic podium of the UN General Assembly hall, Modi, beginning his speech with a “Namaskar”, said he brings the voice of 1.4 billion Indians or one-sixth of humanity to the UN.

During the conclave, Modi assured the world community that India will continue to work in thought, words and deeds to protect the rights of all humanity and for global prosperity.