Washington, March 12 (IANS) US Vice President J.D. Vance and his Indian-descent wife Usha Vance will visit India later this month, according to a US news report. This makes him the second member of the President Donald Trump Cabinet headed for New Delhi this month, along with Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence.
According to a US media outlet, the Vice President will be accompanied by the second lady, whose parents immigrated to the US from India. She was born and raised in the US and met Vance at Yale, where they were both studying law.
India will be Vice-President Vance’s second foreign trip after France and Germany where he addressed the Munich security conference.
Vance’s visit will be the first by a US vice-president after more than 12 years. The last was in 2013, by then Vice-President Joe Biden.
Mike Pence, who served as president in President Donald Trump’s first term, did express the desire to visit India but never did. And Kamala Harris, the Indian-descent vice president in president Biden’s administration, never did, neither did she even express the wish to do so publicly.
Vance’s visit is significant as a key member of the Trump cabinet and administration. He has emerged as a key communicator of the president's agenda and wishes and has been an outspoken advocate for his boss, most prominently in the spat between him and President Trump on one side and the visiting Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the other.
Their verbal exchange was seen around the world as the most explicit display of Trump's position on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Vance also stunned Europeans at the Munich conference by accusing governments in the group of stifling free speech. And, he had named the countries, including close allies such as the UK and Germany.
No details were available of his engagements in India.
Gabbard's schedule includes an address at the Raisina Dialogue, the annual meeting of the world’s leading security and foreign policy officials, thinkers and experts.
