When Modi Met Obama for Dinner

Sep 30, 2014 Tushita Politics 0

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Prime Minister Modi arrived in Washington late afternoon at the Andrew Airforce Base and was received by William Burns, Deputy Secretary of State and other senior officials.

From there, Mr. Modi started for the Blair house, the American President’s guest house where he will be staying during his Washington trip. Later, he drove to the White House from the Blair guest house.

US President Barack Obama hosted a private dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi before their Summit talks, as the two leaders sought to reinvigorate bilateral ties.

Extending a warm welcome to the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Obama asked him, “Kem Cho,” to which Mr. Modi replied, “Thank you very much, President.”

The dinner, with limited guests from each side in the Blue Room of the White House had a delectable spread of dishes, but the main guest only had warm water as he was observing Navratri fasts. Nevertheless, Mr. Modi asked others not to worry and continue to eat as usual.

However, First Lady Michelle Obama did not attend the dinner as she was travelling.

“The Prime Minister did not have anything except for warm water,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Syed Akabruddin said.

Mr. Modi later described his meeting with Obama as “wonderful” and he stated that he talked about a wide range of issues.

 “Obama and I share a vision for a partnership in which our nations work together for the benefit of the entire humankind,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

On the issues of discussion during the 90-minute dinner meeting, Mr. Akbaruddin said discussions were largely on knowing each other and sharing the initial experiences after they took over.

They shared anecdotes to connect with each other, he said while describing the dinner meeting as a “very successful interaction”.

“They did not get to discuss any of the substantive issues. This was a very cordial and comforting conversation where each of them were trying to understand others perspective and they did not get into very substantive discussion which will follow tomorrow,” he added.

They agreed to take up more substantive issue tomorrow — both in restrictive format and in delegation level talks — but in general the thinking was that there was a lot of goodwill between India and the US for each other, he said.

“There was a feeling that they should try and focus on some big things that they can achieve in a finite time period in the next few years,” the Spokesperson said.

“There was also a feeling that India—US relationship was among the most important relationships in the world today. And therefore, it was incumbent upon both of them to work towards strengthening and deepening this relationship,” he said.

Pen friends?

It was also unveiled later that Obama and Modi have jotted down a joint editorial in one of the leading newspapers in the U.S. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin confirmed the news.

The joint editorial, which will be published in a U.S newspaper tomorrow has been compiled by both the heads of the States via digital interaction.

Asked how the two leaders collaborated to write the joint editorial, Akbaruddin said both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Obama are great votaries of digital diplomacy and therefore, it is very easy to digitally interact and through electronic means and it (editorial) was only finalised after Prime Minister’s arrival in Washington.

He also said that this was for the first time that an Indian leader has ventured on the path of a joint editorial.

Prime Minister however wrote an editorial in Wall Street Journal before he headed to the US for his first visit since taking power in May.

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• indo-US, MOdi Dinner, Modi-America, Modi-Obama

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