Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit 'very successful', says Ambassador Taranjit Singh Sandhu

Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a very successful visit to the US during which he held his maiden bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden and had a good candid and substantial exchange with like-minded Quad leaders at their first in-person summit, India’s envoy here has said. Remarks by India’s ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, came at a dinner event hosted by Indiaspora on Wednesday. “We just had a very successful visit here”, Sandhu said. The dinner was attended by the who’s who of the Indian-American community. Eminent members of the Indian-American community had gathered for the first time in the national capital after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. During the visit, there was an important bilateral meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, the first one since the Biden-Harris administration was inaugurated in January this year. The two leaders had earlier met in 2014 and 2016 when Biden was the vice president of the country. So, it was not the first time they were meeting, but the bilateral meeting was very good, Sandhu said in his first public appearance after last week’s visit of Prime Minister Modi. The interaction with Vice President Kamala Harris went very well, he said. The Quad summit hosted by Biden at the White House and attended by Modi along with their counterparts from Japan and Australia really went off very well, he said. “There was a good candid and substantial exchange between all the four leaders,” he said, adding that there are practical areas in which the corporation is moving quite ahead. “In fact, in vaccines, all the four countries are bringing their respective strengths together and we are on our way to producing one billion vaccines in 2022 which will be distributed over the Indo-Pacific particularly in Southeast Asia”, Sandhu said. Meanwhile, Atul Keshap, 50, a career United States Foreign Service Officer, who too attended the dinner, said there has been a qualitative improvement in the relationship between the US and India. He said, “in my 70 days in Delhi, what I noticed was a qualitative improvement in the bilateral relationship between the United States and India.” The level of trust and confidence, respect and love between the two countries truly is at an all-time high, he added. Keshap has recently returned from New Delhi where he served as US’ interim Charg d’affaires. During his stay in Washington DC, Prime Minister Modi met Prime Minister Scott Morrison from Australia and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan. During his trips, the US handed over 150 historic antiquities to India, which the prime minister took with him on his return to India. From Washington DC, the Prime Minister went to New York where he addressed the UN General Assembly. With inputs from PTI