New Delhi, October 2 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to the Capital on Wednesday after his five-day visit to the US. Modi left Washington on Tuesday at the end of his visit and returned home on a Special Air India plane after a brief transit halt in Frankfurt.
Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and a few of his ministerial colleagues were present at the Palam Technical area to receive Modi in a departure from normal practice where ministers no longer line up to see off or receive the prime minister during his foreign trips.
During the five-day hectic visit, Modi projected India as an attractive investment destination, tried to reset ties with America, addressed the UN General Assembly and enthralled the Indian diaspora.
At the end of his first visit to the US as Prime Minister, Modi “thanked” America for what he said was a highly “successful and satisfactory trip” to the country.
On Tuesday, Modi and President Barack Obama held a summit meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, at the end of which the two leaders promised to take the India-US relationship to new heights.
After a nearly eight-hour flight from Washington, Modi had a three-hour stopover in Frankfurt. The prime minister was seen off at the Andrews Air Force Base in Washington by Indian Ambassador to the US S Jaishankar and the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal.
In a meeting spread over two hours, Modi and Obama also agreed to make “joint and concerted efforts” to dismantle safe havens for terror and criminal networks like LeT, JeM, D-company, Al-Qaeda and Haqqani network.
The meeting covered a broad range of issues such as cooperation in diverse key sectors like defence, security, energy economic and space besides deciding to break the impasse on implementation of civil nuclear deal.
On Monday evening, Obama had hosted a private dinner for Modi but he had only warm water as he has been observing Navratra fasts which started on September 25.
In the first leg of his five-day US trip, Modi spent four days in New York, where he addressed the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 27, and wowed the Indian American community by addressing the diaspora at a packed Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple the next day.
In New York, Modi held meetings with a host of top American businessmen including breakfast with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Top American leaders like Bill Clinton and wife Hillary and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were among others who called on the prime minister.
In all, 50 top US lawmakers and three Governors including South Carolina’s Nikki Haley met him. During his trip, Modi also visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York and the Gandhi Statue in Washington DC.
-INDIA TODAY
