New Delhi: US President Joe Biden, during his meeting with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House for their first bilateral since he came to power, joked about “five Bidens in India” and a Biden who “married an Indian woman”, provoking a lighter moment during their joint press meet.
PM Modi also “informed” him in the same vein that he came prepared with documents that could help him in his search for Bidens in India.
“I am not sure but when I was elected (as senator) as a 28-year-old kid in 1972 before I was sworn in, I got a letter from a person named Biden in Mumbai. I said I couldn’t follow it up…The next day in the press conference, the Indian press said there are five Bidens in India,” President Biden was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The US President continued, “…I said jokingly that I found out there’s a Captain George Biden who was captain in the east Indian tea company…”
Explaining that it was all in good humour, Biden joked: “The end result was that he (George Biden) apparently stayed and married an Indian woman. And I have never been able to track it down… so the whole purpose of this meeting is to help me figure this out…”
“Jokes aside, the relationship between India and the US, the largest democracies in the world, is destined to be stronger, closer, tighter,” he said.
Taking a cue from Biden, PM Modi said he had brought genealogy papers for the ease of US President.
“You talked about Biden surnames. You had mentioned it to me earlier too. I tried to hunt for the documents and I have come with some documents. Maybe those documents can be of some use,” said the Prime Minister. President Biden quickly said, “I’m relieved.”
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