Trump claims Modi to meet him during US visit, sparking speculation

Former president Donald Trump has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet him next week during his upcoming three-day visit to the US.

PM Modi will be visiting the US from September 21 to 23, beginning his trip with the Quad Leaders' Summit being hosted by President Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.

The summit will be attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan.

Modi will then travel to New York and address a mega community event in Long Island on September 22. He will address world leaders at the landmark Summit of the Future event at the UN headquarters the next day.

Trump, speaking at a town hall meeting in Flint, Michigan, on Tuesday said that Modi will meet him next week when he is in the US. The Republican presidential candidate revealed the information as he spoke about trade and tariffs while responding to a question.

"He (Modi) happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he's fantastic. I mean, fantastic man. A lot of these leaders are fantastic,” Trump said.

At the same time, the former president reiterated that India imposes heavy tariffs on imports.

Trump went on to say, “These people are the sharpest people…You know the expression, they're at the top of their game, and they use it against us. But India is very tough. Brazil is very tough….China is the toughest of all, but we were taking care of China with the tariffs.” “So we're going to do a reciprocal trade. If anybody charges us 10 cents, if they charge us USD 2, if they charge us a hundred per cent, 250, we charge them the same thing. And what's going to happen? Everything's going to disappear, and we're going to end up having free trade again. And if it doesn't disappear, we're going to take in a lot of money,” he said.

The US heads into presidential elections in less than two months with Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the top job.