On Sunday, Prime Minister of India narendra modi spoke in front of the representatives of the Indian diaspora in Washington and its environs. The head of the Indian government made his first visit to the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Modi's speech took place in the afternoon in the northern part of Virginia. Unlike his reception in 2014 at Madison Square Garden, which was attended by many people, Sunday's reception was by invitation only.
Many Indians and American Indians gathered at the Andrews airbase on Saturday evening to greet incoming Prime Minister Modi.
Modi-Trump first time meeting
Modi will meet President Trump on Monday, and this will be the first personal meeting between the heads of the two regimes. Before that, Trump and Modi only communicated by phone calls. In addition, the Indian press has repeatedly stated that both leaders put their national interests first and are concerned about the growing power of China. The governments of the two countries are said to be working on a joint statement on combating terrorism.
During his election campaign, Trump spoke positively about Indian culture, Hinduism and personally about Prime Minister Modi. "I am a big fan of Hindu, and I am a big fan of India. Big, big fan," Trump said at a meeting organized by the Coalition of Hindu Republicans.
Problem areas
During the election campaign, Trump praised Modi, but, at the same time, criticized India for taking American jobs and companies in the US, especially in the IT sector, preferring to hire Indian immigrants.
After becoming US President, Trump began to take measures that struck the interests of the Indian IT sector. On April 18, President signed a decree reforming the rules for the issuance of H-1B working visas, according to which American companies could hire foreign specialists without obtaining a green card to work in high-tech industries.
As a matter of fact, a significant part of such specialists were Indians.
"They should be given to the most skilled and highest-paid applicants, and they should never, ever be used to replace Americans," Trump said, explaining the purpose of signing the decree.
In addition, a week before the visit to Modi, the US defense giant Lockheed Martin and Indian conglomerate Tata Group signed an agreement on the establishment of a joint venture that will produce American F-16 fighter jets in India.