With Lok Sabha elections months away, the visits are vital politically as these would showcase Modi's standing as a world leader to the home electorate.
After nearly six months in India, Prime Minister Narendra D Modi will embark on four foreign visits over the next 40 days, starting with the G7 summit in Hiroshima and concluding with his first state visit to the US from June 21 to 24, the highlight of which will be his participating in the International Yoga Day event at the United Nations in New York and a Diaspora event in Chicago.
The PM's previous visit abroad was to the G20 leaders' summit in Indonesia.
Apart from the G7 in Japan and the US State visits, the PM attended the Pacific Islands leaders' meeting in Papua New Guinea and traveled to Australia this week.
Modi's visit to PNG, as part of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation Summit, was vital since China, the US, and its allies are wooing the resource-rich country of 9.4 million people just north of Australia. China and Australia are its most significant aid and infrastructure donors.
On the other hand, New Delhi must be more timely in delivering its promises.
According to a press statement issued by PNG Prime Minister James Marape's office before Modi's visit, the 'non-implemented; memorandums of understanding include a $100 million line of credit from Exim Bank of India for the construction of the Madang-Baiyer road and the Kimbe-Hoskins road, another health care and medical science cooperation, both signed in April 2016, a $150 million line of credit signed in September 2019 at the FIPIC leaders' meeting in New York.
FIPIC was launched in November 2014 in Suva, the capital of Fiji, with Modi meeting the leaders of 14 Pacific island countries. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping landed in Suva two days after Modi's visit. The second FIPIC meeting took place in Jaipur in 2016.
Modi will arrive in the US for his first State visit to that country in June. The last State visit by an Indian prime minister was when then US president Barack Obama hosted then prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh in November 2009.
A State visit involves elaborate ceremonies, including a flight line ceremony (where the visiting leader is greeted at the tarmac after landing), a 21-gun salute White House arrival ceremony, a White House dinner, an exchange of diplomatic gifts, an invitation to stay at Blair House (the US president's guesthouse across 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue) and flag lined street.
Modi's visit includes a State dinner on June 22, the ministry of external affairs said.
The June 21 visit will be Modi's sixth to the US since 2014.
Apart from diplomatic engagements at the UN and Washington, DC, his past visits have involved a community reception by the Indian Diaspora.
In September 2014, the PM addressed the Indian Diaspora at New York's Madison Square Garden and five years later, with then US president Donald J Trump by his side, in Houston.
The Indian Diaspora, especially Gujaratis, has been a pillar of support for the Bharatiya Janata Party and, most recently, contributed to the party's Gujarat assembly poll campaign in November-December 2022.
Modi's meetings with world leaders at Hiroshima, and his visit to the US, come months before India hosts the G20 summit in New Delhi in September.
Keeping aside their disagreements over the Russia-Ukraine war, India-US relations have seen greater synergy in recent months, with Biden appointing Eric Garcetti as the US ambassador to India and focusing instead on issues where the two countries agree, such as the Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
Biden and Modi, the MEA spokesperson said, 'would reflect on their shared vision for a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific and discuss opportunities to expand and consolidate the Quad engagement.'
The PM's upcoming foreign visits are necessary for India's strategic interests.
Biden and Modi, and their respective delegations, will review bilateral relations in several sectors, such as technology, trade, industry, education, research, clean energy, defence, security, healthcare, and deepening people-to-people connections.
With Lok Sabha elections 10 months away, the visits are vital politically as these would also showcase Modi's standing as a world leader to the home electorate.
