More than a month after he first claimed that Mark Zuckerberg told him he was “number one on Facebook” at a dinner, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to say that he was looking forward to his India visit and his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Great honor, I think? Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that “Donald J. Trump is Number 1 on Facebook. Number 2 is Prime Minister Modi of India.” Actually, I am going to India in two weeks. Looking forward to it!” he tweeted.
Great honor, I think? Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that “Donald J. Trump is Number 1 on Facebook. Number 2 is Prime Minister Modi of India.” Actually, I am going to India in two weeks. Looking forward to it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2020
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are scheduled to visit Ahmedabad and New Delhi during their two-day visit to India on February 24 and 25.
Earlier this week, Trump has said that he spoke to Modi over the weekend and during the conversation, the prime minister told him that “millions and millions of people would welcome him from the airport to the cricket stadium.”
President Trump is expected to get a frenzied welcome by lakhs of people when he arrives in Ahmedabad. Trump and Modi are expected to give a speech in Motera stadium, billed as the largest cricket stadium in the world and which is expected to be packed.
But it is trade on which industry analysts will be keeping a close watch. India and the US have been working for the past few months to resolve a trade dispute. Ahead of Trump’s visit India has offered to partially open up its poultry and dairy markets to win a limited trade deal.
India, the world’s largest milk producer, has traditionally restricted dairy imports to protect the livelihoods of 80 million rural households involved in the industry, a Reuters report said.
But Prime Minister Modi is trying hard to rebuild bonds between the world’s two largest democracies.
Last year, Trump suspended India’s special trade designation that dated back to 1970s, after Modi put price caps on medical devices, such as cardiac stents and knee implants, and introduced new data localization requirements and e-commerce restrictions.
The US is India’s second-largest trade partner after China, and bilateral goods and services trade climbed to a record $142.6 billion in 2018. The United States had a $23.2 billion goods trade deficit in 2019 with India, its 9th largest trading partner in goods.
In June last year, Trump had raked up the issue of India’s import tariff on Harley Davidson motorcycles, saying his “good friend” Prime Minister Modi had cut the rate by 50% but even that is “unacceptable”.