US to PM Modi: Welcome back. This will be an epic trip to remember!

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in New York on Thursday and will remain there for the next five days. This is his second visit to the US after taking charge as the PM.

He will address world leaders at a landmark UN sustainable development summit and interact with senior CEOs, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, and the Indian diaspora in Silicon Valley.

Earlier, Modi was received by Indian Ambassador Arun K Singh, India's envoy to the UN Asoke Mukerji, Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay and their spouses at the airport.

The PM will have a packed schedule for the next two days in New York and then in California from September 26-27.

On September 28, Modi will return to New York for a bilateral meet with President Barack Obama and will later attend a high-level peacekeeping summit at the United Nations.

He will address global heads of state on Friday at the Sustainable Development Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the new and ambitious post-2015 development agenda will be adopted.

India will also host the G-4 summit in New York on September 26, before Modi leaves for the West Coast for a packed two-day trip during when he will have meetings with Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Pichai.

He will also meet Obama on September 28, his third summit meeting with the US president in about a year.

Modi is expected to focus on giving a further push to early and urgent reform of the Security Council and to send an "unambiguous message" of "zero tolerance against terrorism".

In a letter to the UN Secretary General in July, Modi had said that that the UN must be made more effective for dealing with new security challenges as "we are now living in an era when non-state military actors are a major factor."

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukerji has said that the Prime Minister's speech at the Sustainable Development summit will focus on "Agenda 2030" since he "has given a lot of attention to the substance of the development agenda."

Among the ambitious 17 goals to be adopted by the UN for the next 15 years is complete poverty eradication, zero hunger, quality education, gender equality, sustainable cities and communities and clean water and sanitation.

In his letter to the UN chief, Modi had also underscored that eliminating poverty by 2030 should "unquestionably" be at the heart of the post-2015 Development Agenda.

"The most acute forms of poverty still remain the most pressing problem and require direct, urgent and sustained interventions. Addressing the needs, concerns and human rights of 1.3 billion poor people in the world is not merely a question of their survival and dignity, but also a vital necessity for an enduring peaceful, sustainable and just international order," he said.

(Image: Reuters)