Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Washington in early June for a bilateral summit with President Barack Obama in what would be his fourth trip to the United States since assuming office two years ago. And top American lawmakers do not want to let go the opportunity this time to get him to address a joint session of US Congress.
While there has been no official announcement yet either from the White House or the Prime Minister’s Office, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Tuesday mentioned June 7-8 as the expected dates of Modi visit and urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to invite him to address Congress.
“Given the depth of our relationship with India across a range of areas — Defence, humanitarian and disaster relief, space cooperation, conservation, and innovation, — we believe this is an ideal opportunity for the Congress to hear directly from the Prime Minister,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce and three other lawmakers in their joint letter to Speaker Ryan.
“Therefore, we ask that you invite Prime Minister Modi to address a Joint Meeting of Congress,” they wrote, adding: “It is our understanding that if invited, the Prime Minister would accept.”
Apart from Royce, Congressmen Eliot Engel, George Holding and Ami Bera are signatories to the letter. Engel is Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, while Holding and Bera are Co-Chairs of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. Royce and Holding are Republicans, while Engel and Bera are Democrats.
“The US-India relationship consistently garners strong bipartisan support,” they said, noting, “Inviting Prime Minister Modi to address a Joint Meeting will allow Congress to express support for this special global partnership.”
When Modi made his first US visit as Prime Minister in September 2014, Royce had initiated a similar move for an address to Congress, but it did not fructify because of scheduling problems. John Boehner, the then Speaker, had written to Modi, conveying his inability to host him because of “unpredictability of the House schedule”.
Stating that “the US partnership with India is based on a foundation of shared values, including the rule of law, electoral democracy, and religious pluralism”, the four Congressmen spoke of the “significant growth” in the bilateral relationship.
“President Obama has visited India twice, and Prime Minister Modi reciprocated with two trips of his own to the United States,” it said, without referring to Modi’s third visit recently to attend the global Nuclear Security Summit that President Obama hosted here on March 31-April 1.
“Our two countries have signed a defense framework agreement to increase military cooperation and the civilian nuclear agreement, signed in 2008, will result in the construction of nuclear power plants in India,” they said, adding, “Additionally, the United States and India are forging closer ties to address humanitarian crises, such as the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal, in the renewable energies sector, and in space exploration.”
“It is no wonder that the partnership has been characterized as the defining partnership of the 21st century,” the Congressmen said, noting, “This renewed partnership has found champions in the leadership of both parties, including both President Clinton and President George W Bush, and has been further emboldened in the United States by a strong, proud, and growing Indian-American diaspora.”