Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. (Source: Twitter/@MEAIndia)
US President Donald Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, is in India for a two-day state visit. He landed at Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Monday.
The US President addressed the ‘Namaste Trump’ event along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ahmedabad’s Motera Stadium. He also made a visit to the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram. Follow Trump visit LIVE updates
Trump will visit the Taj Mahal on Monday and is expected to sign a slew of MoUs on Tuesday, when he will meet PM Modi in Delhi’s Hyderabad House.
Here is how the international media covered the US President’s India visit:
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is running a live blog to cover Trump’s first day in India. The international media outlet wrote, “Trump’s visit to India comes as the two countries continue to deepen their security cooperation but face stubborn tensions over trade”.
The Washington Post on what to expect from Trump-Modi meeting.
It wrote another ‘what to expect’ article a day before the US President’s visit to India. “India plays a principal role in the U.S. Asia strategy — the Trump administration even renamed the regional military command the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to reflect India’s central status. U.S. strategy documents call India a key partner to counter China’s efforts to establish “Indo-Pacific regional hegemony,” it said
The Washinton Post talks about India-Pak relations and how Washington worries about it.
“U.S.-Pakistan relations have appeared to improve while U.S.-India relations have drifted. Washington’s ties with Islamabad have long frustrated Indian decision-makers, who have indicated U.S. aid and diplomatic protection enable Pakistan’s support of violent nonstate groups,” the article said.
The Washington Post writes on US’ concerns with India.
The New York Times
Meanwhile, The New York Times, in its article titled ‘For a President who loves crowd size, India aims to deliver’ wrote, “When President Trump comes to visit, world leaders face the challenge of finding ways to entertain and impress a leader who relishes spectacle”.
The international media outlet in another article titled ‘India set to stage an epic show, with Trump as the star’ wrote about “serious issues” in India. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have enticed Mr. Trump to fly 8,000 miles with the promise of a two-day spectacle. But serious issues remain,” the article’s excerpt read.
The New York Times article titled ”India set to stage an epic show, with Trump as the star’.
“The way the Indian government has chosen to present the visit — not as a high-powered summit meeting but as “Namaste Trump,” essentially “Howdy, Modi!” Part 2 — seems to signal that it may shape up as more of a public relations exercise, albeit a memorable one, than anything else,” the article reads.
‘Modi has also been widely criticised for his crackdown on Kashmir,’ writes the New York Times.
“Officials with Modi’s political party said that they, along with Hindu nationalist organizations and community groups, had been ordered to round up thousands of volunteers to line the road and fill the cricket stadium,” the article further adds.
Bringing up the issue of the wall built to hide the slum areas, the article reads, “In a slum area along the route of the presidential motorcade, a new gray cement wall has mysteriously appeared, obscuring a warren of makeshift shelters. (The city has said that the wall was planned long ago to protect residents from stepping into a busy street.) Many Indians now joke that Trump finally got his wall — and India paid for it”.
The New York Times addresses the issue of the wall built to cover slum areas in Ahmedabad.
Dawn
Pakistan’s Dawn reported on the US President’s visit with an article titled ‘With no trade deal on the cards, is the Trump visit to India just payback for ‘Howdy Modi’?’.
Drawing parallels with the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in 2019, the article said, “The venue echoes the Howdy Modi event from 2019 when the two political leaders addressed a crowd of mostly Indian-Americans numbering in the tens of thousands at an arena in Houston, Texas. Then too both leaders got to display their big public personas for the crowds and cameras, even though there was little concrete progress on Indo-US ties”.
Dawn report titled ”With no trade deal on the cards, is the Trump visit to India just payback for ‘Howdy Modi’?’
“This time, Trump will get a roadshow from Ahmedabad airport to Motera Stadium on February 24, with a stopover in Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram. Trump will then visit the Taj Mahal, before beginning the diplomatic engagements the following day,” it adds.