Washington, 18 Sept

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

While the Republican presidential candidate slammed India as an "abuser" on the issue of import tariffs, he described Modi as a "fantastic man".

PM Modi will be visiting the US from September 21 to 23.

Speaking on Tuesday at his first public appearance following the recent apparent assassination attempt, Trump said Modi will meet him next week when he is in the US.

“So when India, which is a very big abuser. 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, reiterating that India imposes heavy tariffs on imports.

The former president revealed the information as he spoke about trade and tariffs while responding to a question at a town hall meeting in Flint, Michigan.

He went on to say, “These people are the sharpest people. They're not a little bit backwards...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.

In New Delhi, when asked about Trump's comment, the Ministry of External Affairs did not respond.

Modi will begin 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 Fumio Kishida 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.

Modi's visit comes less than two months before the US heads into presidential elections with Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the top job.

The US general elections will take place on November 5.-PTI