Modi returns, without meeting Trump, belying former US Prez's claim

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to New Delhi after his three-day visit to Delaware and New York without meeting former American President Donald Trump, belying the claim of the Republican Party’s nominee. Presidential elections in United States will be held on November 5.

New Delhi avoided a meeting between the prime minister and any of the candidates of the US presidential elections to avoid any controversy that could go against the spirit of the bipartisan support in the American Congress for its growing relations with Washington DC.

Modi had a bilateral meeting with outgoing United States President Joe Biden, who hosted him at his residence in Greenville, Delaware. He and Biden also joined Fumio Kishida and Anthony Albanese, the Japanese and Australian prime ministers, for the 4th summit of the Quad before flying to New York, where he addressed a conclave of Indian Americans apart from speaking at the United Nations Summit of the Future. He also had a few bilateral meetings with the leaders of other nations, before flying back to New Delhi.

He, however, did not have any meeting with either Trump or his rival, American Vice President Kamala Harris, the candidate of the Democratic Party in the US presidential elections.

Trump had said on September 17 that Modi was going to the US to meet him.

India is a “very big abuser” when it comes to its trade relations with the US, Trump, who is seeking to return to the Oval Office at the White House, had said, adding that Modi would meet him.

He criticised India for imposing high tariffs on imports from the US. He referred to the tariff barriers imposed by Brazil and China too. He also articulated his policy of responding with reciprocal tariffs on exports of India, Brazil, and China to the US.

“He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he's fantastic. I mean, fantastic man,” Trump had said at a campaign event in Flint, Michigan

New Delhi, however, never confirmed any meeting between Modi and the former US president, neither before the prime minister’s visit to Delaware and New York. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who briefed media persons in New Delhi and New York on September 19 and September 21 respectively, did not rule out the possibility of such a meeting but cited a paucity of time.

Had Modi met only Trump without meeting Harris, it would have been seen by the Democrats as a sign of New Delhi’s bias toward the Republican Party’s candidate. Trump’s campaign team would have used his meeting with Modi to woo the Indian American voters, the majority of whom had been traditionally voting for the Democratic Party, said a source.