Ministry of External Affairs said that US President Trump's visit to India will focus on taking ties ahead and not on US domestic politics. According to MEA spokesperson, at least 5 memorandum of understanding are being worked out. The two sides are working on MoUs on homeland security, trade facilitation and protection of intellectual property rights

New Delhi: President Donald Trump’s day-long events with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad is not linked to US domestic politics, the Ministry of External Affairs has said. The visit will focus on taking ties ahead and at least five memorandum of understanding are being worked out, it said.

Denying that the roadshow and ‘Namaste Trump’ event at Motera stadium were meant to provide a political platform for Trump, the MEA said such joint shows happened in the past too, though not on such a scale. Incidentally, the US presidential polls will be held later this year and hundreds of thousands of Indian-origin people are expected to vote.

“We don’t view the address by both leaders directly intended to influence the politics of US,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, adding that several bilateral issues would be taken up during the visit.

Responding to a question on whether opposition leaders would be present at the joint address, the spokesperson said the Donald Trump Nagrik Abhinandan Samiti was organising the event and managing invitations.

The two sides are working on MoUs on homeland security, trade facilitation and protection of intellectual property rights, the spokesperson said. Issues like restricting H-1B visas for Indians to 15% are expected to come up during the visit.

“We have remained engaged in the issue with the government and the US Congress on movement of Indian professionals. In the partnership, we feel Indians have contributed to progress of the US economy. We do expect the movement of Indian professionals is part of the agenda that could come up for discussions,” he said.

Kumar said there were no ‘artificial’ deadlines for the trade deal and more thought would go into striking the right balance. “We do not want to rush into a deal as the issues involved are complicated. Many decisions have the potential to impact people’s lives and have long-term economic consequences. We do not want to create artificial deadlines,” Kumar said.

Discussions were on to accelerate the civil nuclear cooperation with an Indian team in the US to understand modular construction technology. “Westinghouse and NPCIL are in discussion to build six 1,100 MW reactors in AP’s Kovvada. Following resolution of Westinghouse’s bankruptcy issues, the two sides are in discussion on the division of responsibility of the work,” Kumar said. MEA said the visit “reflected the growing comfort level” between the nations and both leaders have personally invested in the relationship.

“This will be Trump’s first and a standalone visit to India...We expect that the talks will deepen our engagement in all areas. It would also give an opportunity to exchange views on regional and global issues of shared interests,” he said.