Vance to visit Akshardham temple; PM to host dinner

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host a dinner for US Vice-President JD Vance and Indian-origin Second Lady Usha on Monday, after holding talks with the American leader that are set to focus on trade, tariff and several other key issues, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

The US Vice-President, his wife Usha and their three children — Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel — are scheduled to land at the Palam airbase here at 10 am on Monday on a four-day India visit.

The Vances will be welcomed on their arrival by a senior Union minister. Besides Delhi, Vance and his family will travel to Jaipur and Agra. Vance is expected to be accompanied by at least five senior officials, including from the Pentagon and the State Department, the people cited above said. Hours after arriving in Delhi, Vance and his family are scheduled to visit the Swaminarayan Akshardham temple and could also go to a shopping complex selling Indian handcrafted goods, they said.

On Monday, Modi will host Vance for talks that are expected to focus on an early finalisation of the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement as well as on ways to boost the overall trajectory of the ties between the two countries. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Indian Ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra are expected to be part of the team to be led by Modi.

India