Narendra Modi, Barack Obama to meet in Washington in September

Finally the ice seems to have melt and President Barack Obama has proposed a meeting with the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Washington in September, in what could be the most significant initiative for both the countries.

Modi has confirmed to US President Barack Obama that he will have a bilateral meeting with him in Washington in the last week of September this year, when Modi is expected to be in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

However, the meeting between PM Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama would be a full-fledged bilateral summit in Washington, rather than a chance encounter at the UN.

Obama had already invited Modi to the US when he called up the PM to congratulate him and Modi has now shown that the US hostility towards him won't be allowed to come in the way of India-US relations.

The prime minister has in fact, put the country' strategic interests above his own personal prejudices and predilections. There was speculation that Modi could focus more on China and India's other Asian neighbours like South Korea or Japan for economic gains and improved security partnership. But he has now clearly stated that these won't be at the expense of India's ties with Washington.

US-India relations have a strategic role to play in Asia and the global stage, both in political and economic terms and bringing back the lost momentum in bilateral relations could perhaps be Narendra Modi's biggest achievement on the foreign policy front.

It was difficult for many both in India and the US who believed that Modi could find it difficult to come to terms with the US hostility towards him after the 2002 Gujarat riots, and the resultant revocation of his US visa. He remained the only person to be barred from traveling to the US for many years under the country's controversial International Religious Freedom Act.

There is also an economic element in India-US bilateral relations, as Senator Mark Warner pointed out in his keynote address on 'Improving US-India Trade Relations', organised by National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) that the US could lose out on the Modi administration's "100-day plan." He said both the Modi government and the Obama Administration need to take measures to revitalise India-US relationship.

The two sides are reported to be finalising the date for the meeting, which could be in the last week of September. The Modi-Obama summit promises to be one of the foremost international events of the year if he decides to go to New York and from there to Washington.