Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on an official visit to the US next month where he will be hosted by President Joe Biden and the first lady Jill Biden.

The official announcement made by the White House and Indian Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday (May 10, 2023) stated that the visit will be on June 22 and this will include a state dinner.

This will be the third meeting between PM Modi and the President of the US this year. The two leaders will be meeting later this month at the G-7 summit in Tokyo and later when the QUAD Leaders meet in Australia.

The visit is expected to further strengthen the two countries’ shared commitment to free, secure, open and prosperous Indo-pacific and the collective resolve to elevate the strategic technology partnership including defence, clean energy and space.

MEA Statement

Both leaders will also explore ways to strengthen India-US collaboration in pluri-lateral and multilateral fora, including in the G20.

The visit will also reaffirm the close and deep partnership between the two countries and there will be discussions related to challenges from climate change, health security, expansion of educational exchanges as well as people to people connect.

What is likely to be discussed?

India is keen to further deepen cooperation in the Space sector and this will be one of the issues that will be discussed at the leaders’ level as well as delegation level.

The impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war on food and energy security, situation in West Asia, and more will be on the agenda list for the leaders to discuss.

Last September both countries had committed themselves to a deeper defence cooperation which would include sharing of emerging technologies and better information sharing and logistics between the militaries of India and the US.

Both countries have been working closely in various sectors including space, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, and other technology areas.

As far as Military Cooperation is concerned, it is at an all time high and there are regular exercises of all three services and the two governments share on regular basis intelligence and information, and India has been participating in the American international military training and educational programme.

And the Indian Armed Forces are already operating several US platforms like the Boeing C-17 and Lockheed Martin C-130J military transport aircraft; the maritime surveillance plane Boeing P8-I; two Predator drones which India has leased following the Galwan incident in 2020; there are helicopters – heavy lift Chinook and attack helicopters like Apache and anti-submarine MH-60R.