Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had previously mentioned plans to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit, but the meeting did not take place.
PM Modi’s 55-hour visit was packed with engagements, while Trump was occupied with his election campaign, just six weeks away from the polls. On Saturday, Modi participated in the Quad summit alongside U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
On Monday, Modi was fully engaged with his address at the Summit of the Future and several other meetings before his scheduled departure.
Sunday saw Modi addressing a diaspora rally in a New York suburb, with some time later in the day for other engagements. However, Trump was away at his own campaign rally in North Carolina.
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Later on Sunday, PM Modi met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, and Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah al-Khalid.
There were speculations about a possible meeting between PM Modi and Mohammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s de facto Prime Minister, on the sidelines of the United Nations Summit of the Future. Some media reports suggested that PM Modi was avoiding a meeting. However, timing was a crucial factor.
When asked about the missed meeting at a press conference, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri explained, “The Prime Minister is leaving in a few minutes from now. The chief advisor of Bangladesh is not here yet, so there hasn’t been any possibility of a meeting on this occasion.”
Instead of Yunus, Touhid Hossain, foreign affairs adviser in Bangladesh’s interim government, spoke at the summit on Monday.
On his final day, after meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vietnam’s To Lam, PM Modi also made time to meet the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan.
