Modi departs for New York to hold talks with Obama

Concluding his whirlwind tour of Silicon Valley, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday left for New York where he will have a packed schedule that includes talks with US President Barack Obama.

Apart from Obama, Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and French President  Francois Hollande.

The first meeting Modi will have in New York will be with Cameron followed by a bilateral with Hollande.

All eyes will be on his meeting with Obama, which is expected to last for about one hour and 10 minutes during which the two leaders are expected to discuss progress in the Indo-US strategic ties and ways to take it to greater heights.

This will be the third Modi-Obama meeting in just over a year and comes days after US and India held a Strategic and Commercial Dialogue last week.

Modi will attend a lunch hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the heads of state and government who will be in the UN for the first day of the annual General Debate.

He will then address a UN Peacekeeping Summit attended by Ban, Obama, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and some other world leaders.

Given the packed schedule of Modi on his last day in the US, the summit will be the only platform where Modi and Sharif will be under one roof, raising speculation of whether the two leaders will greet each other.

Before he departs for India, Modi will also hold bilateral meetings with Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.