New Delhi, June 25: US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has on Tuesday arrived in New Delhi as part of his official three-day visit to India, marking the first top-level engagement between the United States and India after NDA government’s comeback to power for the straight second term for five years.
According to ANI news reports, Pompeo is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and minister of external affairs S Jaishankar on Wednesday. The MEA is likely to host a lunch for the US state secretary.
Pompeo’s visit will offer “an important opportunity for both sides to explore further ways to strengthen India-US strategic partnership”, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.
Both the sides are scheduled to hold top-level engagements over the issues related to mutual interests, including global, bilateral, and regional issues.
The state secretary’s visit to India comes in a backdrop of rising tensions between Iran and the US, as well as, trade differences between Washington and New Delhi.
Moreover, his visit will also prepare grounds for a coming summit between Indian prime minister and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit, scheduled to take place in Osaka, Japan, on June 28-29.
Jaishankar was on trade issues b/w India & USA ahead of US Secy of State’s visit. Jaishankar said, “There’ll be talks on trade issues definitely, we’ve our interests & US have their own, sometimes they converge & sometimes they don’t. Diplomacy is about finding common ground on these interests.”