Strong effort by Centre to create goodwill: Ex-foreign secy Salman Haider on Trump's visit

NEW DELHI:: Former foreign secretary Salman Haider said that US President Donald Trump's two-day state visit to India can be "very meaningful" as strong effort is being made by the Indian government to create goodwill at an "unprecedented level".
"I think this can be a very meaningful visit because a great effort has been made by India to create goodwill. This is the most important aspect of it that I see.There have been ups and downs in our (India-US) relations. But now, a very strong effort is being made by the Indian government to create goodwill at an unprecedented level," Haider told ANI here.
Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, is set to arrive in Ahmedabad today. This is the US President's first visit to India.
The US President, along with his family and a ministerial delegation, will be in India for around 36 hours. They will visit Ahmedabad, Agra, and Delhi during their stay.
Meanwhile, Haider said that Pakistan has been "under pressure from America and under countries to mend its ways and to give up its terrorist practices, to abandon them, and develop a more equable and more reasonable way of dealing with our country". He said that the defence relationship between India and the US has been developing over the last few years and it must be "expected that questions of arms supplies, of cooperation in a number of defence areas will be promoted by Trump's visit".