Following a request from US Congress legislators, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) urged the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, to invite Prime Minister Modi to address the joint session during his upcoming State visit to the US.
In a letter, dated May 25, 2023, the hospitality group that has a majority of Indian Americans said, “AAHOA would encourage you to exhibit our nation’s commitment to the United States-India relationship by inviting India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to address a joint session of Congress during his upcoming visit to the nation’s capital from June 21-23, 2023.”
This week, @AAHOA wrote a letter to The Honorable Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives, in appreciation for his friendship to the hotel industry and the Indian Diaspora that serves as the heart of it: https://t.co/0vhcAPgKzj
— Laura Lee Blake (@LL510Blake) May 25, 2023
The Association stressed that inviting PM Modi to address the joint sitting of Congress will advance the strong bilateral relationship between the two nations. “Inviting Prime Minister Modi to speak during a joint session of Congress will further strengthen the relationship between our two nations by offering a venue to provide constructive dialogue on ways the United States and India can cooperate on key issues,” their letter states.
Indian- American hotelier Bharat Patel, who serves as the association’s chairman and president Laura Lee Blake also thanked McCarthy for his friendship with the hotel industry and the Indian Diaspora. With 20,000 members, AAHOA is the largest hotel owners association in the US. Its members own 60 percent of the hotels in the United States and are responsible for 1.7 percent of the nation’sGDP.
