Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 June 2016 concluded five-nation visit to Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.
During the five-day tour between 4 June and 8 June 2016, Modi met with Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani; Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani; President of Swiss federation, Johann Schneider-Ammann; US President Barack Obama; and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieta.
During this visit, he held high level meetings on a wide range of bilateral issues and matters of regional and global concern. With US President, Swiss President and Mexico President, Modi discussed India’s NSG membership issue and secured their constructive support.
Major Highlights of the visit to Afghanistan
• In Herat, Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani dedicated Afghan-India friendship dam, earlier known as Salma dam to the people.
• The project built by India at a cost 1700 crore rupees will irrigate 75 thousand hectares of land, generate 42 megawatt power and also supply drinking water in 620 villages.
• Afghan President conferred the highest civilian honour of Afghanistan, the Amir Amanullah Khan Award on Narendra Modi.
Major Highlights of the visit to Qatar
• The two nations signed 7 agreements in various fields.
• Prime Minister as a rare and special gesture shared meal with workers at a medical camp in Doha.
• The two sides agreed to constitute an inter-ministerial High Level Joint Committee to regularly review all bilateral matters, as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest.
• Modi held detailed talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and addressed the business community of Qatar, a country which is India’s largest supplier of LNG requirements, accounting for 65% of the country’s total imports in financial year 2015-16.
Major Highlights of the visit to Switzerland
• Prime Minister meets Indian scientists and students at CERN in Geneva.
• Delegation level talks were held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Switzerland President Johann Schneider Ammann in Geneva.
• Switzerland supported India’s membership in the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
witzerland agreed to provide mutual support to India for becoming non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
• Switzerland agreed to help India in combating the menace of black money and tax evasion
• The country agreed to build Swiss style vocational and educational training centres in India that suit India’s requirements.
• It also agreed to share clean technology and work on energy security and sustainable development.
Major Highlights of the visit to the US
• Modi addressed a joint session of the US Congress.
• He met the Congressional Leadership at Capitol Hills.
• He addressed the gathering at 40th AGM of US India Business Council in Washington.
• He interacted with think tanks in Washington.
• He attended ceremony for repatriation of cultural objects in Washington.
• He laid wreath at Space Shuttle Colombia Memorial at Arlington Cemetery in Washington.
• The two nations announced the creation of a 20 million dollar US-India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) initiative. The initiative will be equally supported by both and is expected to mobilize up to 400 million dollar to provide clean and renewable electricity to up to 1 million households by 2020.
• The two nations signed and exchanged 6 MoUs and 2 documents.
Modi was the fifth Indian prime minister to address a joint session of US lawmakers. Other four Prime Minister’s to address the joint session include Rajiv Gandhi (June 1985), P V Narasimha Rao (May 1994), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (September 2000), Manmohan Singh (July 2005).
Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the House and Senate separately in 1949 when he was the head of the interim government.
Major Highlights of the visit to Mexico
• Prime Minister meets Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico during his visit to Mexico
• Mexico is an important partner for India’s energy security. We are now looking to move beyond a buyer-seller relationship, and into a long-term partnership.” – Prime Minister
• Foreign Ministers of the two countries were instructed to develop the roadmap of the Privileged Partnership suitable for the 21stCentury, in the framework of the Seventh Mexico-India Joint Commission Meeting to be held in Mexico in 2016.