On first day of US visit, PM Narendra Modi to meet Kamala Harris, Australian PM, global CEOs

Washington: On the itinerary-packed first day of his US visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold meetings with Australian counterpart Scott Morrison, US Vice President Kamala Harris and the select heads of corporates that have the potential to invest significantly in India.

According to sources, Prime Minister Modi will start his day by meeting with select heads of corporates in the United States. The CEOs will include the heads of Qualcomm, Adobe, Blackstone, General Atomics and First Solar. 

The Prime Minister reached Washington on Wednesday local time. "Prime Minister will start the day with meetings with select heads of corporates in the United States I think these are CEOs that represent fairly large corporate interests, companies that have particular expertise and invested in India and has the potential to invest significantly in India," the source added.

"They represent diverse areas from technology, the IT sector to finance to defence to renewable energy. I think it is a very good mix of CEOs, that would be meeting Prime Minister Modi on a one-to-one basis, investments in the United States have been very important and very significant in India`s recent development activities in line with our major economic initiatives, the flagship program. In particular what we call Make in India," the source further added.

On Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to meet Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 

The official said that Prime Minister Modi is looking forward to meeting Prime Minister Morrison on a range of issues. "In the afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. They have met on a number of occasions on the sidelines of various international conferences, Prime Minister Morrison recently called Prime Minister Modi to brief him about the plan to go ahead with the AUKUS Alliance," he said.

"And I think, you know this meeting has been long overdue because Prime Minister Morrison was to visit India in January last year but he couldn`t be here, he could not make it because of the fairly severe fires at that time in parts of Australia. He was then supposed to come in May last year but because of the COVID situation he could not make it," the source added.

Biden will host PM Modi at the White House on September 24, this is going to be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders after Biden took over as the US President on January 20.

Ahead of leaving for the US to participate in Quad Leaders` Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said his visit will be an occasion to strengthen the strategic partnership with the United States, Japan and Australia.

He will then come to the White House where he will meet Vice President Kamala Harris in her ceremonial office. The discussion on issues is expected to range from a number of issues of interest to both sides.

"We have allocated one hour for the discussions and discussions are expected to range from a number of issues of interest to both sides, from the management of COVID-19 to issues like cooperation in the high-tech sector the space sector, where the Vice President has an interest and owned a number of areas including the resilient and secure supply chain are something that both sides have great interest in," he said.