Vance to visit India next week: White House

NEW DELHI: US vice president JD Vance will visit India next week with his family for meetings with the top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss shared economic and geopolitical priorities.

The trip to India will be the second leg of a week-long two-nation tour beginning on April 18 that will first take Vance to Italy, the White House announced on Wednesday. This is his first visit to India.

Vance and his family will arrive in India in the morning of April 21, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Soon after their arrival, Vance and his family will visit the Red Fort. In the afternoon, Vance will meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and BJP president JP Nadda, the people said.

The Prime Minister will interact with Vance and his family – wife Usha, the first Hindu American second lady, sons Ewan and Vivek and daughter Mirabel – and host them for a formal dinner at his official dinner in the evening, the people said.

The visit by Vance and his family has more of a personal element and is aimed at introducing his children to India, with limited official engagements, the people said.

Vance met Usha Chilukuri, whose parents migrated to the US, while attending Yale Law School and the couple married in 2014.

The White House said in a readout that Vance will discuss “shared economic and geopolitical priorities with leaders” in Italy and India.

Vance and his family will visit New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. They will also participate in engagements at cultural sites, the readout added.