India’s Modi to visit US and meet Trump next week

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the US next week and meet President Donald Trump, the White House says.

Other reports say Modi will attend a dinner hosted by the US president on the two-day trip. The dates of the official working visit have yet to be announced.

Modi will be among the first foreign leaders to meet Trump at the White House during his second term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently in Washington and Japan’s PM Shigeru Ishiba is due this week.

Modi and Trump shared warm relations during the US president’s first term. Last week they held a “productive” phone call and discussed illegal immigration, security and trade ties, the White House said.

Analysts say it will be interesting to see if the bonhomie between the two men will help overcome concerns about trade and immigration.

Trump called Modi a “great leader” last year but also accused India of charging excessive tariffs.

Confirmation of the Indian leader’s visit to Washington came shortly after a US military flight deporting about 100 Indian nationals landed in the state of Punjab.

All those on board are said to have either entered the US illegally, or overstayed their visas.

During last week’s call, Trump said he was sure India “will do the right thing” when it comes to illegal immigration.

He has made the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals a key policy. Earlier, Bloomberg reported that 18,000 undocumented Indian migrants living illegally in the US had so far been identified, but the real number is likely to be higher.

According to the Pew Research Center, there were an estimated 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US last year.

India has so far escaped the threat of tariffs on its exports to the US.

In the past however, Trump has called India a “tariff king” and a “big abuser” of trade ties and threatened reciprocal action if Delhi did not reduce taxes on US imports.

India’s recent budget saw duties slashed on a range of goods, including high-end motorcycles like the iconic Harley Davidson.

India’s finance secretary told local media this was a sign the country was “not a tariff king”.

Last week, the Indian foreign ministry said the two countries were working to further deepen their bilateral relations.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar represented India at Trump’s inauguration ceremony and held talks with his US counterpart Marco Rubio while in Washington.

In November, following Trump’s election victory, Jaishankar said the country was not nervous about working with the US president.