New Delhi/Houston: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will shortly begin his week-long visit to the US and ahead of the visit he has said he isconfident that his visit will present India as a global leader and boost ties with the US. PM Modi will leave at around 11.30 pm IST. In the departure statement, PM Modi said, "I am confident that my visit would present Indiaas a vibrant land of opportunities, a reliable partner and a global leader, andwill also help impart new energy to our relations with the US."

PM will be meeting around 45 world leaders from all parts ofthe world from--neighbourhood to extended neighbourhood to Latin America. Hewill be meeting US President Donald Trump on Tuesday in New York for abilateral. This will be his third bilateral meet with US President in 2019,after meeting on the sidelines of G20 summit in Japan and G7 summit in France.PM Modi in the statement said he looks forward to meeting with President Trumpin Houston and New York.

He said, "The US is a vital partner for our nationaldevelopment, with rich possibilities of partnership in education, skills,research, technology and innovation, and an enabler for India in economicgrowth and national security...Working together, we can contribute to buildinga more peaceful, stable, secure, sustainable and prosperous world."

Overall three main focus points of the visit--multilateralengagements at United Nations, a bilateral component in the US--which includemeeting with businesses, diaspora and US political leadership and bilateralmeeting in New York.

Harsh V Shringla speaking to media in the Houston said,"Prime minister has a comprehensive programme in the US. He arrives inHouston this Saturday and soon after he arrives he has an event to meet topCEOs of Energy companies. Houston is the global hub for energy. Our cooperationwith the US has increased significantly because of our interest in US crude oiland energy."

His first stop will be Houston were his first engagementwill be to meet top energy companies CEOs. Remember Houston, the capital thefourth most populous city of US and capital of southern American state ofTexas.

Sunday will see him participating in "Howdy Modi"diaspora event, which will be the largest gathering of people for a visitingdemocratically elected leader. According to the organisers, 50,000 people haveregistered for the event, mostly Indian Americans. US President Donald Trumpalong with senior democratic leadership will be present.

He will be New York from Monday and will be speaking ninetimes at various events throughout the week that will be broadcast live. Mondaywill see him address climate change and health care summit and Leaders dialogueon strategic responses to terrorist and violent extremists narrative.

Tuesday will see the focus on 150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi with the launch of Gandhi Solar park in United Nation Headquaterpremises. Gandhi Solar Park has 193 panels representing the UN Member nationsand has been built with Indian government's grant of one million dollars. Solarpanels gifted from India, are installed on the roof of the UN. The panels arepowered up to reach the max of 50 KW of generation power. With an output of86244 Kwh, it equals to 61 metric tons of CO2 or 30,242 kg of coal burned carbonsequestered from 1008 tree seedlings grown over 10 years. A UN postage stampwill be released and Gandhi Peace Garden to be inaugurated in New York Stateuniversity remotely.

PM Modi will address the United Nations General Assembly on27th September, anytime after 8 pm IST.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, "This is PM's firstvisit to the United States after the re-election of the government, and PrimeMinister is going to UNGA with solid achievements in previous five years insustainable development goals. Our intention is to showcase progress made onclimate change, universal health coverage, sanitation etc. and conveyexpectation from other countries and understand their aspirations."

Two important summits will take place--the 3rd India PacificIsland Summit and the 1st India Caribbean summit. The focus will also be oninvestments with PM meeting CEOs of 45 US companies like Amway Corp, Bank ofAmerica, Coca Cola, Deloitte, IBM, Cisco Systems Inc, JPMorgan & Chase,Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, MasterCard, Microsoft, Visa, WalmartRetail.

The statement read, "The New York leg of my visit willalso cover important elements of our bilateral relations with the US. I lookforward to addressing the opening plenary of the Bloomberg Global BusinessForum and inviting American business leaders to participate more actively inIndia's economic growth and transformation. I am honoured by the decision ofthe Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to confer upon me the Global GoalkeepersGoals Award 2019."

This is the first visit to the US by PM Modi in his secondterm. In his first term, PM Modi visited the US twice in 2014 and 2015. Nomeeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will take place, who is alsoin New York for the UNGA week given the current climate between the twocountries.