PM to visit Switzerland, US in five-nation tour

To embark on another four-nation Africa tour in July

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a five-nation tour from Saturday. He will visit Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.  He is also slated to head for a four-nation tour to Africa in the first half of July. While the itinerary of that visit is still being worked out, it is likely to include visits to Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya. It will be the first visit of his tenure to mainland Africa. The PM had visited the island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius in March 2015.

The highlight of the PM’s five-nation tour will be the visit to Switzerland on June 5 and 6, en-route to the US. In Switzerland, the PM will hold discussions with the President of the Swiss Confederation Johann Schneider-Ammann. Modi is also likely to take up early conclusion of an agreement on the automatic exchange of tax information.

This agreement will facilitate the exchange of information between the tax authorities of the two countries and potentially help Indian tax authorities to track unaccounted money, or ‘black money’, suspected to be stashed away in Swiss banks by Indian nationals. Tracking down the ‘black money’ was a key promise of the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the US, Modi has been invited to address a joint meeting of the US Congress and will also have an interaction with the CEOs of major US companies.

South Block has said the visit will aim to consolidate the progress made in diverse areas from economy to defence, “particularly during the last two years under the leadership of Modi and US President Barack Obama”. This could also one of the last meetings of the two leaders before Obama bows out of office.

The PM will start his five-nation tour with a visit to Afghanistan to inaugurate the Salma Dam in Herat.

The dam has been constructed with Indian help. In the past month, India along with Iran and Afghanistan has not only given a push to not only their trilateral dialogue but also decided to expedite the Chabahar transit project.

The PM’s visit to Qatar on June 4 and 5 will consolidate his West Asia outreach. He has already visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran. India-Qatar bilateral trade exceeded $15 billion in 2014-15.

Qatar is the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India. In 2015-16, the country met 65 per cent of India’s total LNG imports and is one of the key sources of crude oil needs of India. Around 630,000 Indian nations live in Qatar and comprise the largest expatriate community of that country. Qatar is also slated to host the 2022 Soccer World Cup.

The PM’s visit to Mexico is aimed at discussing cooperation in areas such as agriculture and energy, South Block said.