New Delhi:
US First Lady and wife of President Joe Biden, Jill Biden, received gifts worth thousands of dollars in 2023, including a diamond worth $20,000 (Rs 17.15 lakh) from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his official state visit to the US in 2023.
The 7.5-carat green lab-grown eco-friendly diamond gifted to Jill Biden reflects the “chemical and optical properties of earth-mined diamonds”.
The diamond, gifted to Jill Biden, was placed in a box made of paper pulp, known as kar-e-kalamdani.
According to the report released by the Office of the Chief of Protocol of the United States, Mrs Biden also received a brooch valued at $14,063 from the Ukrainian ambassador to the US and a bracelet, brooch and a $4,510 photograph album from the President and First Lady of Egypt.
The US law states that any official from the executive branch, including the President, has to declare gifts they receive from foreign leaders and counterparts that are more than $480.
The $20,000 diamond was retained for official use in the White House East Wing, according to a State Department document, while the other gifts to the president and first lady were sent to the archives, news agency AP reported citing the report.
In 2023, Prime Minister Modi visited the US on its first-ever state visit to the country, where he was hosted by outgoing President Joe Biden and Mrs Biden. As the official gift, the Prime Minister gave a handcrafted sandalwood box to President Joe Biden.
The sandalwood box gifted to President Biden contains a silver idol of Lord Ganesha, a diya (oil lamp) and ‘Das Danam’.
The Prime Minister also gifted Joe Biden a copy of the first edition print of the book ‘The Ten Principal Upanishads’.
PM Modi received a handmade, antique American book galley from the Bidens.
The first couple also gifted him a vintage American camera, a hardcover book of American wildlife photography and a signed, first-edition copy of ‘Collected Poems of Robert Frost.
