US President Barack Obama greets PM Narendra Modi on Diwali, agrees to meet him in Turkey

NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday night telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to greet him on Diwali and they agreed to meet in Turkey on the sidelines of the G20 Summit to be held early next week. “A short while ago @POTUS (President of the United States) called. We exchanged Diwali greetings.

This was our first conversation through the newly-established hotline,” Modi tweeted on Tuesday night. “President Obama & I look forward to meeting in Turkey during the G20 Summit,” he said. Modi said President Obama and he “discussed a wide range of other issues as well. It was good knowing how @WhiteHouse is marking Diwali.”

Obama-Modi meeting in Turkey, coming within two months of their last meeting in New York, will be key before the Climate Change meeting to be held in Paris in November end. The September meeting devoted considerable time to India’s adoption of renewable energy methods to fight climate change. Modi will travel to Turkey to attend the G20 Summit to be held on November 15-16.

The Summit is being held at a critical juncture after the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals agenda at the United Nations and ahead of the climate change Summit in Paris on November 30 to December 1.

“During the Summit , we will review the progress on decisions taken at the Brisbane Summit and take up issues of climate change, terrorism, refugees, weak growth in global economy, strategies for growth and employment, investment strategies, trade and energy,” the PM Tweeted a few days ago.