The leaders of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee called on Tuesday for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress during his visit to Washington in June.
Invitations to address the Senate and House are considered a great honour. There have been only two in the past year: Pope Francis, on 24 Sept, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on April 29, 2015.
“Given the depth of our relationship with India across a range of areas – defense, 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”, Representatives Ed Royce, Republican committee chairman, and Eliot Engel, the panel’s ranking Democrat, wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
A spokeswoman for Ryan said she had no announcement at this time about whether Ryan would extend the invitation.
Washington sees its relationship with India as critical, partly to counterbalance China’s rising power. Obama has called it “one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.”
(This article has been published in collaboration with Reuters)
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