The Modi-trump meeting on 26th June would have satisfied the Indian leader. To start with the US designated Syed Salahuddin, as an "international terrorist." This was a long-standing demand of India. Salahuddin heads the Hizbul Mujahideen from his base in Pakistan and for the last 27 years has been planning terrorist attacks in Kashmir.
President Donald Trump and Modi identified Pakistan in a joint statement and urged it not allow the use of its territory for terror-related activities. The two leaders also called on Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mumbai and Pathankot attacks.
CNN International reports this news.
Facing Islamic terror together
Modi and Trump identified "radical Islamic terror" as the greatest danger facing the world and promised to eliminate it. Trump is the first US president to have directly named Pakistan for supporting terror activities. No US president before Trump has issued such a statement. Despite the close rapport with Obama, Modi had failed to include a reference to Pakistan during his last two visits to the USA. The declaration of Salahuddin as an international terrorist is also good news for India.
India & USA are global engines of growth. @POTUS & I discussed ways to strengthen the economic & trade relationship between our nations. pic.twitter.com/OyTITg8B4m
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 26, 2017
Positives of Trump-Modi meeting
Modi and Trump sat down together for a string of meetings lasting 4 hours.
Just before the visit, Trump had also cleared the sale of predator drones to India. India will get 22 drones, and the deal is valued at over $ 2 billion. The leaders also discussed the security environment and Trump referred to the security partnership between the two nations as "incredibly important."
The president also expressed his pleasure at the recent order of 100 airliners by an Indian company.
The stress was however on terrorism, and TOI has quoted Trump as saying"We are both determined to destroy terrorist organizations and the radical ideology that drives them. We will destroy radical Islamic terrorism,"
The meeting did not touch on any contentious issues like China and H1B Visa. The president did express his satisfaction that a military exercise would soon be conducted by the navies of Japan, India, and USA in the Indian Ocean.
Trump did voice his concern about Korea and the South China Sea.
Future
This was the first meeting between Trump and Modi.The USA rolled out the red carpet for Modi and Modi reciprocated and thanked Trump for saying good things about India during the election campaign. Incidentally, both the leaders have millions of followers on Twitter and Trump referred to it in a light hearted way. As things stand, Modi has achieved his purpose, and the ice is broken.
Thank you, Prime Minister Modi, for inviting me to lead the U.S. delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India this fall. pic.twitter.com/ZNwmTTnGYD
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 27, 2017