Biden invites to (almost) vegetarian state banquet for cooling water Modi Fukushima: controversial discharge into the sea is getting closer

For the culinary highlight of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US, US President Joe Biden invited guests to an almost entirely vegetarian state banquet. Nearly 400 guests – including a number of ministers, Apple boss Tim Cook and Nobel Prize winner Denis Mukwege were invited – arrived at the specially decorated White House on Thursday evening.

In honor of vegetarian Modi, an almost entirely plant-based menu was planned. Marinated millet and grilled corn salad would start as starters, followed by portobello mushrooms stuffed with saffron risotto and cardamom-infused strawberry cake for dessert. As an alternative there was also roasted sea bass as a main course.

Before the toast, Biden said in a short address to Modi: “Two great nations, two great friends and two great powers. Bottom up.” Modi thanked Biden again for the invitation. “You are a gentle man, but when it comes to action, you are very strong,” Modi said. He then toasted “the freedom and the eternal friendship between India and the United States’.

Biden had previously received the Indian prime minister with great pomp as a state guest in Washington. Biden said he was “convinced that the relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century.”

He and Modi signed several economic and military agreements and sworn partnerships between the two countries. The Biden administration is aggressively seeking to tie India more closely as a major player in the Indo-Pacific and on the international stage. The Indian is only the third state guest of the Biden administration. (sda/dpa)