Srinagar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for their first meeting during which “strategic issues”, including trade and counter-terrorism, were discussed.
Trump gave Modi a guided tour of his residence quarters in the White House, including the Lincoln bedroom, and showed him a copy of the famous Gettysburg address by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, and the desk on which he wrote it.
Modi presented Trump a folio containing an original commemorative postal stamp issued by India in 1965 to mark the death centenary of Lincoln, sources said.
The issue of this stamp, apart from honouring the memory of Lincoln, also symbolises the closeness of the ideals for which Lincoln stood and those which drove Mahatma Gandhi. Both leaders believed in the basic goodness of the common man, and in emancipation of the downtrodden.
Modi also presented to Trump a wooden chest with intricate inlay pattern that is a speciality of Hoshiarpur in Punjab.
The visiting Prime Minister gifted to First Lady Melania Trump a hamper containing a traditional, handcrafted Himachali silver bracelet, tea and honey from Kangra valley, and hand-woven shawls from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi touring the White House along with the Trumps in Washington DC on June 26, 2017.
PM Modi became the first foreign leader to enjoy a White House dinner since Trump came to power and the two leaders discussed a range of issues.
In a joint press briefing, Trump stressed on eliminating and destroying radical Islamic terrorism and emphasised on how both nations – the US and India – are deeply affected by the “malaise of terrorism”.
Modi also laid special emphasis on the growing camaraderie between India and the United States, asserting that eliminating safe havens of terror and bring stability to Afghanistan was the major priority of both nations.
