Republican presidential candidate and former United States President Donald Trump said that he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, Bloomberg reported.
The report added that this is another in a string of meetings with foreign leaders and officials with Trump as he contests the 2024 US elections, and the world's nations "grapple with the possibility of the Republican returning to power after November."
He has met with other world leaders earlier this year, including Hungarian PM Viktor Orban in Florida, Polish President Andrzej Duda in New York, and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
“He happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he’s fantastic,” Trump said while speaking at an event in the town hall in Flint, Michigan.
He also spoke about free trade and protecting US jobs, and a Reuters report added that he said India was a “very big abuser” of the US-India trade relationship.
Notably, this was Trump's first public appearance since the apparent second assassination attempt against him on September 15.
The Trump campaign did not comment on queries, the Bloomberg report added.
Modi will be in the US this weekend to attend the Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware. Then on September 23, Modi will address the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The US views India as a counter to China's influence in Asia, the Bloomberg report said, adding that the Biden administration has pledged to work with India on artificial intelligence and defence technologies. However, the Russia-Ukraine war and India's relationship with Russia has been "frustrating", it added.
Trump and Modi have had “warm relations” when the former was US president and he also visited India in 2020. During his rally, audience members wore “Namaste Trump” hats to welcome Trump, the Reuters report added.
Prior to that, PM Modi visited the US in 2019 and held a “Howdy, Modi!” rally in Texas, which was attended by more than 50,000.
(With inputs from Bloomberg, Reuters, and AP)
