Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Washington to meet President Barack Obama in September, two Indian newspapers reported on Thursday (June 5), signalling a new start in ties with a leader once denied a visa by the United States.
Modi, who swept to power in a general election last month, has accepted an invitation from Obama for two-way talks in Washington, the Times of India and the Hindustan Times said.
The Indian foreign ministry and the U.S. embassy both declined to comment.
Jitendra Singh, a minister in Modi's office, said the report was speculative and suggested reporters wait for an official announcement.
But a leader of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said a meeting between Delhi and Washington was crucially important.
"In the matrix of foreign affairs for India, U.S. plays a very important role and we would like to strengthen the relationship with U.S. And we both feel that it will help both the countries economically and from the security angle. Therefore, this meeting, as and when it happens, will play an important role and we assure that both the countries will be looking for better relationship vis-a-vis India to U.S. and U.S. to India," said Siddharth Nath Singh.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal is due in New Delhi on Friday (June 6) for the first set of meetings with the new administration since it took office.
She is expected to meet Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and it is possible that Modi's trip could be announced at the end of her visit.
India and the United States are keen to boost security and economic ties - the Obama administration has set a goal of quintupling annual bilateral trade to $500 billion.
Former junior foreign minister and a leader of the opposition Congress party Shashi Tharoor said that if Modi went to the United States for the U.N. General Assembly session, it was likely he would meet the U.S. president.
"This is a natural thing. U.S. is one of our more important global strategic relationships. And as far as the prime minister of India is concerned, it is quite natural that meeting with the president of U.S. will follow before too long. If not earlier, then certainly we would have expect that if the prime minister goes to the United Nations general assembly in September, he will have plenty of opportunities to meet with world leaders, including of course the U.S. president. So, I am sure that something like this is very much on the cards," he said.
Scheduling has still to be finalized, but the summit would represent an upgrade from previous expectations that Modi, 63, would meet Obama on the sidelines of the annual United Nations general assembly in New York.
Indian leaders usually travel to the U.N. session and meet U.S. presidents there. Obama, though, extended an invitation to Modi to the White House during a phone call to congratulate him on his election victory on May 16.
"It's a very good development, you know. September is the time when the heads of all governments and states visit the UN general assembly session. So, the U.S. president is very busy and can meet some and not everybody. So it's a clear signal the high priority they attach to the relationship with India and how it can be further strengthened," said former Indian ambassador to the U.S., Naresh Chandra.
Modi, a former chief minister of Gujarat, had been refused a U.S. visa over sectarian strife in the western Indian state in 2002, in which more than 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed.
He has denied any wrongdoing and an Indian Supreme Court inquiry found no case to answer.
REUTERS