Modi to meet Trump in Washington this month

The United States is looking forward to host Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington later this month, the State Department has said.

"We look forward to having the (Indian) prime minister here in Washington -- I believe it's later this month," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her daily news conference on Thursday.

Modi is expected to travel to Washington at the invitation of US President Donald Trump for a meeting at the White House later this month. The actual dates of the meeting have not been announced yet.

This would be Modi's first trip to the US under the Trump administration. The two leaders have spoken over phone at least three times.

Under the previous Obama Administration, Modi had a record number of eight meetings with Barack Obama. Modi travelled to Washington three times and Obama made a historic trip to India to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in 2015.

Meanwhile, ahead of Prime Minister Modi's visit to the US later this month, a top Indian diplomat has said that "partnership" is the best way to describe the India-US relationship.

"I think ultimately perhaps in my mind, the best way to describe and qualify this relationship is partnership," Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said at an event organised by the Meridian International Center in Washington, DC.

Other than partnership, Sarna said, "It's very difficult to see, where does India fit in with the US".

"It is not an ally in the classical sense and neither it is part of an umbrella grouping. India's relationship with the US is many ways that of a partnership, as the countries who have a lot to offer each other at the moment," he said.

And frankly, he said, it's very difficult to think of another partner for the US, which is such a thriving and huge democracy with very deep democratic roots.

"If you are looking at that sort of partner who understands these, then I don't think frankly, on the scale of India, there is any other country in the world," Sarna said.