PM thanks Trump for praise in 2014, 'honour to 1.25 billion Indians'

WASHINGTON: The much-awaited meeting between PM Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump got off to a warm start on Monday as Modi thanked Trump and the First Lady for their gracious reception that “honoured 1.25 billion Indians“.
In a brief statement before he and Trump began their discussions, Modi recalled that Trump had visited India in 2014 and praised him in an interview.Modi thanked Trump for his “kind words“, prompting him to grin and nod in acknowledgment.
The US had sent out a powerful message a few hours earlier, designating Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin a global terrorist . The step, welcomed by India, is a direct hit against Pakistan as it undermines its claim to be supporting a freedom movement rather than a terror organisation.Trump also drafted First Lady Melania Trump to join him in welcoming the PM. Melania was also slated to join them for dinner and take part in the departure ceremony, making it three appearances with the visiting dignitary - a clearly personal gesture from Trump.
The dinner itself is a special gesture -the first such event in the Trump White House for a foreign leader, although the President hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, in April.
On his September 2014 visit to Washington DC during the Obama presidency, PM Modi famously went without eating during a White House dinner because he was observing the Navratri fast. While Obama and the two delegations feasted on crispy halibut in ginger carrot sauce, compressed avocados, and mango creme brulee, Modi sipped on warm water. First Lady Michelle Obama gave the dinner a miss and went on a day trip to the US mid-west.
Melania has only just moved into the White House, and this will be the first big reception she will be a part of in the presidential mansion.
US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley - a first-generation immigrant who was born Nimrata Randhawa and is the sole Indian American cabinet member in the Trump administration - is also believed to be playing a prominent role during the Modi visit Trump had invited Haley to the Monday lunch he usually has with US Vice-President Mike Pence, just ahead of Modi's arrival at the White House at 3.30pm, presumably to discuss the upcoming meeting. Haley has met Modi earlier, when she was governor of South Carolina, to promote business in her home state.
But it was the designation as global terrorist of extremist Syed Salahuddin, a lapdog of the jihad-supporting Pakistani military, as a global terrorist, that set the tone for the meet ing -particularly as it comes during a spell of unrest in the Valley . Trump himself was chuffed before the meeting by the US Supreme Court decision allowing a limited version of his travel ban to take effect.
Modi's White House engagement, slated to last at least five hours (3.30pm to 8.30 pm) end to end, was prefaced by calls on the Indian Prime Minister by US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and defence secretary Jim Mattis at the Willard Hotel next to the White House. Both cabinet principals reiterated the Trump administration's desire to enhance Washington's strategic ties with India, putting at rest speculation that New Delhi did not figure prominently in Trump's scheme of things, something US officials who previewed the visit on background had also scotched.
Tillerson, Indian officials said, referred to an oped that appeared under Modi's byline in the `Wall Street Journal' to assert that there was no need for any special opportunity for the two sides to “seize the moment“ to enhance ties.
The broad agreement to advance their strategic ties ameliorated some of the differences in trade and commerce which both sides skirted around publicly .