SINGAPORE: A light and effervescent moment ensued between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President Mike Pence during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit on Wednesday.
In a play of words, the Prime Minister alluded to 'Indiana' – Pence's home state in the US.
Later, with the help of his translator, he explained that 'India-ana' (Indiana) in Hindi means "Visit India" and invited Pence to visit the nation.
Pence, laughing, said, "Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. I expect I will 'Indiana'."
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump had turned down India's invitation to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.
Modi and Pence held talks on a wide range of bilateral and global issues of mutual interests including defence and trade cooperation, ways to counter terrorism and the need for maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.
"Spoke about our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific & reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen security and counterterrorism cooperation and coordination," Pence tweeted after his meeting with Modi.
In a readout, Pence's office said he encouraged "free, fair, and reciprocal trade with India."
Briefing the reporters, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale later said it was a "very good" meeting.
"There was a sense of convergence both on bilateral issues and on global issues and we look forward to taking the relationship now in the coming months and in 2019," he said.
PM Modi also raked the issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, pointing out that "all the traces or all the leads in global terror attacks ultimately lead to a single source".
"In that context he did point out that the mainstreaming of the people involved in Mumbai terror attacks in a political process which had taken place in a recent election in Pakistan should be a matter of serious concern not just to our two countries but to the international community," said Gokhale, referring to Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed`s party contesting the general elections in Pakistan in July this year.
With agency inputs
