PM Modi: Despite continued worries over human rights, U.S. President Joe Biden will host India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday for two days of discussions aimed at strengthening “one of the defining partnerships of our age.” While Modi seeks to increase the power of his nation, which is now the most populous in the world, on the international scene, Washington wants India to serve as a strategic counterweight to China. The agreements that Biden and Modi are likely to sign include a range of topics, including defence sales and cooperation, quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and investments by Micron Technology and other American businesses in India.
Biden’s Approach to India’s Democratic Regress
According to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Biden will discuss American concerns about India’s democratic regress but won’t lecture Modi on the matter. “We make our views known,” Sullivan said of the United States when it observes threats to press, religious, or other freedoms. And he continued, “We do so in a way where we don’t seek to lecture or assert that we don’t have challenges ourselves.” The direction that politics and democratic institutions take in India will ultimately be decided by Indians living in India. The United States won’t decide it, according to Sullivan. Despite worries over what is perceived as a deteriorating human rights situation under his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi will make his first journey to the United States with the full diplomatic status of a state visit. Modi has visited the US five times since taking office in 2014, but this would be his first trip with that status. Democrats are putting pressure on Biden to discuss human rights with Modi. U.S. CEOs are giving Modi a warm welcome, including at a reception on Friday. He met Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), on Tuesday in New York. Biden and Modi are both concerned about Beijing’s increasing influence in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
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Modi’s Visit to the White House
Modi and Jill Biden go to the National Science Foundation, and that evening the two will have a private dinner at the White House. On the South Lawn of the White House, Modi will be welcomed with a festive arrival ceremony on Thursday. On Thursday night, Biden and Modi will have discussions in the Oval Office and then to a dinner in his honour. There was no coed press conference scheduled. Speaking on behalf of the White House, John Kirby noted that work was still being done on this issue. India has been largely dependent on Russian oil, and Modi has not supported the Ukrainian military effort. In advance of the G20 summit later this year in India, Biden will bring up Russia and Ukraine, according to Sullivan.
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