Washington DC: First Lady Melania Trump will join the President in welcoming Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi at White House; she will also join Trump and Modi for dinner and later participate in the departure ceremony, making three appearances with the visiting leader.

Melania Trump has only just moved in to the White House and this will be the first big reception she will be part of in the Presidential mansion, although she and President Trump hosted China’s President Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan in Mara-a-Lago, Florida in April.

Also apparently playing a prominent role during the Modi visit will be US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley – a first generation Sikh who was born Nimrata Randhawa — the sole Indian-American cabinet member in the Trump administration.

President Trump has invited her to the Monday lunch he usually has with vice-president Mike Pence, just ahead of Modi’s arrival at the White House at 3.30pm(local time), ostensibly to discuss the meeting. Haley has met Modi when she was governor of South Carolina to promote business in her home state.