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In US for second visit, PM Modi has a packed schedule

September 24, 2015 08:59 IST

PM Narendra Modi gets a grand welcome from the Indian American community in New York. Photograph: SnapsIndia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in New York on Thursday on his second visit to the United States, has a "packed schedule" ahead of him, during which he will address world leaders at a landmark United Nations sustainable development summit and interact with top CEOs and the Indian Diaspora in the Silicon Valley.

During his stay in the financial capital of the country for next two days, Modi will attend a roundtable on the financial sector, an "important meeting" with FIIs keen to invest in India. He will also headline a round table on media and communications hosted by News Corp's Rupert Murdoch and attend a dinner with Fortune 500 company CEOs. He would then fly tothe West Coast for his visit to California from September 26 and 27.

Modi is delighted to meet his supporters in New York. Photograph: SnapsIndia

"A packed schedule awaits in the Big Apple. PM @narendramodi arrives in New York on the first part of his US visit," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted soon after Modi's plane touched down at the John F Kennedy International Airport.

The PM was received at the airport by Indian ambassador Arun K Singh, India's envoy to the UN Asoke Mukerji, Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay and their spouses.

Modi later arrived at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York to a grand welcome by his supporters. He will return to New York on September 28 for a bilateral meeting with President Barack Obama as well as to attend a high-level peacekeeping summit at the United Nations.

On Friday, he will address global heads of state at the Sustainable Development Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the new and ambitious post-2015 development agenda will be adopted.

India will also host the G-4 summit here on September 26, before Modi leaves for the West Coast for a packed two-day trip during when he will have meetings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google's new CEO Sundar Pichai. He will also attend a grand community reception in San Jose.

Desis wait to get a glimpse of the PM in New York. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi 

Modi will also meet President Barack Obama on September 28, his third summit meeting with the President in about a year.

During his stay in the city, Modi will have meetings with French President Francois Hollande and heads of state from Bhutan, Sweden, Guyana and Cyprus, as well as the heads of state of Brazil, Japan and Germany at the G-4 summit on September 26.

He is expected to focus on giving a further push to early and urgent reform of the Security Council and to send an "unambiguous message" of "zero tolerance against terrorism". Meanwhile, officials said, the PM will not have a bilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his current five-day trip to the US.

Yoshita Singh and Lalit K Jha in New York
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