US President Trump reaches Ahmedabad to grand welcome by PM Modi

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : US President Donald Trump landed at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on February 24, 2020, on his first visit to India to a grand welcome by PM Narendra Modi and thousands of people who lined the streets and packed into the Motera stadium to say “Namaste Trump”. Air Force One carrying Trump, his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner landed at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel international airport Ahmedabad around 11.37 am.

Modi, who reached Ahmedabad about an hour before Trump did, welcomed Trump and the US first lady at the airport, hugging the president and shaking hands with Melania. Trump’s first stop was the Sabarmati Ashram, home to Mahatma Gandhi between 1917 and 1930 during India’s freedom struggle. The US president and the first lady spent about 15 minutes at the Sabarmati Ashram.

PM Modi, who reached the Ashram a few minutes before the visiting dignitaries, showed the Trumps ‘Hriday Kunj’, a room inside the Ashram where Gandhi and his wife Kasturba lived. Modi explained to them the importance of the place in India’s freedom struggle. Trump and Melania tried their hands on the khadi spinning wheel, also known as ‘charkha’.

“To my great friend Prime Minister Modi – Thank you for this wonderful visit,” Trump wrote in the visitors book. It was also signed by Melania. PM Modi presented the “Three Wise Monkeys”, signifying Gandhi’s three maxims of ‘see no evil’, ‘hear no evil’ and ‘speak no evil’, as a memento to President Trump.

At the new Motera cricket stadium about 1,00,000 people waited patiently since early in the morning to hear the two leaders speak. Later, President Trump also visited Taj Mahal at Agra.