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PM Narendra Modi's US visit 2023: FULL schedule, dates, agenda, meetings, 21-gun salute, intimate dinner with Bidens and other details

Pm narendra modi us visit 2023: pm narendra modi's historic visit to the us will kickstart on june 20, 2023. his first state visit since 2014 when he became the prime minister, pm modi will be hosted by us president joe biden and first lady jill biden at the white house for a state dinner. he will also be holding meetings with business personalities in new york and attending bilateral meetings crucial for indo-us relations..

Updated Jun 19, 2023 | 08:02 PM IST

President Joe Biden and FLOTUS Jill Biden to host PM Narendra Modi at the White House | PM Narendra Modi Us visit (File Photo: Tweeted by MEA)

Key events to watch out for during PM Narendra Modi's US visit | PM Modi US visit schedule

PM Narendra Modi to visit the United States this week 🇺🇸 What's on the agenda? Take a look👇 @narendramodi @POTUS #NarendraModi pic.twitter.com/tGI44ktBIu — ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) June 19, 2023

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PM Modi US Visit Highlights: New and proud journey of India-US ties has begun, says PM Modi

Pm modi in us highlights: pm modi addressed a gathering of diaspora leaders from across the country and left for cairo..

PM Modi US Visit 2023 Highlights: Prime Minister wrapped up his three-day visit to the United States with an address to the Indian community members. Cheering up the crowd, he said that people of Indian origin will not have to leave the US for getting H-1B visa renewal, PTI reported. He departed for Cairo for his first state visit to Egypt.

He also emphasised that a new and proud journey of India-US ties has begun and the world is watching the two great democracies strengthening their bond.

Before that, he met with top CEOs at the White House in Washington, news agency PTI reported. On Friday, he said the India-US partnership is not of convenience but one of conviction, shared commitments and compassion.

In his address to young entrepreneurs and professionals at the John F Kennedy Center here, Modi said whenever India has become strong, the world has benefited.

United States president Joe Biden , Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Mahindra and Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra, American astronaut Sunita Williams attended the meeting. He is set to meet US Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. PM Modi will also address a gathering of diaspora leaders from across the country. Scroll down for the latest updates!

Meanwhile, during a state dinner on Thursday, PM Modi and US President Joe Biden hailed a new era in their countries’ relationship. “Two great nations, two great friends, and two great powers. Cheers,” Biden told Modi in a toast at the state dinner. “You are soft spoken, but when it comes to action, you are very strong,” PM Modi replied. On the guest list at the state dinner were several top executives from across the world, including Reliance Industries Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, Apple ’s Tim Cook and Google CEO Sunday Pichai.

Underlining that India and the US come from different circumstances and history, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that this visit is one of the “great positive transformation ” and together they will demonstrate that “democracy is better and democracies deliver”. Modi, who addressed the joint session of the US Congress for almost an hour punctuated by applause and standing ovation for the second time, said, “When I was here in 2016, I said that our relationship is primed for a momentous future. That future is today.”

PM Modi US Visit Highlights: PM Modi meets US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at White House, attend State dinner | Scroll down for the latest updates

Derek O’Brien writes: The speech I wish Prime Minister Modi gave in the US

As a representative of the world’s largest democracy and an emissary of its goodwill to the world’s oldest democracy, I am honoured and delighted to be speaking once again before you. For democratic republics such as India and the United States, chambers and buildings such as this one — the Houses of Congress on Capitol Hill here in Washington, DC, and Parliament House in New  Delhi — are embodiments of popular sovereignty, repositories of the people’s trust and monuments blessed with the sacredness of a church, a temple, or indeed a mosque. Read more

Express View on PM Modi’s US visit: No longer defensive

When he addressed the joint session of the US Congress seven years ago this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared that India had ended its “historic hesitations” in dealing with the United States. Modi’s claim had credibility, given his record on improving relations with the US during the first two years as prime minister. In the years that followed, PM Modi took consistent steps to expand the engagement with the US. Read more

A footnote once, tech is the new driver of India-US diplomacy

The incredibly ambitious agenda for technology cooperation — ranging from artificial intelligence to outer space and quantum computing to telecommunications — unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden has the potential to transform the character of India-US bilateral relations and contribute to the restructuring of the regional and global order.

In a joint statement issued after the talks at the White House, the two leaders committed their governments to “facilitate greater technology sharing, co-development, and co-production opportunities between U.S. and Indian industry, government, and academic institutions.” They also directed the two bureaucracies to make “regular efforts to address export controls” and “enhance high technology commerce” between the two nations. C Raja Mohan explains

PM Modi shares glimpses of his US visit

PM Modi tweeted, "Concluding a very special USA visit, where I got to take part in numerous programmes and interactions aimed at adding momentum to the India-USA friendship. Our nations will keep working together to make our planet a better place for the coming generations."

Attended a vibrant program celebrating our Indian diaspora. A heartfelt tribute to the strength, diversity and contribution of our overseas community. Their passion is our pride! pic.twitter.com/0CnlzIUm4K — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 24, 2023

'US govt decided to return more than 100 antiquities stolen from India'

During his address to the diaspora , PM Modi also mentioned that the US government has decided to return antiquities stolen from India. “I am happy that the American government has decided to return more than 100 antiquities of India that were stolen from us. These antiquities had reached the international markets. I express my gratitude to the American government for this,” he said.

'Delighted to interact with the diaspora': PM Modi

'The India-USA partnership is driven by conviction and compassion. It is also a friendship that has bipartisan support,' PM Modi tweeted

Delighted to interact with the diaspora at the community programme in Washington DC. https://t.co/zc9HODeLX5 — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 23, 2023

New and proud journey of India-US ties has begun: PM Modi

Wrapping up his four-day State Visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that a new and proud journey of India-US ties has begun and the world is watching the two great democracies strengthening their bond. Addressing a cheerful gathering of Indian community members, Modi said the full potential of partnership between the two countries is yet to be realised and their ties is all about making the world better again in the 21st century, PTI reported

The two countries have seen convergence on global issues and their growing ties will be a boost for "make in India and make for world" efforts, he said, referring to agreements on technology transfer, boosting manufacturing and strengthening industrial supply chain.Both countries are taking strong steps for a better future, said the prime minister at the community address, which was the last programme of Modi in the US. He will now fly to Egypt on a State Visit at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. He announced that people of Indian origin will not have to leave the US for getting H-1B visa renewal, drawing massive praise from people present in the hall and outside listening to him.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the India-US partnership is not of convenience but one of conviction, shared commitments and compassion.In his address to young entrepreneurs and professionals at the John F Kennedy Center here, Modi said whenever India has become strong, the world has benefited.The prime minister said this was seen during the Covid pandemic. When the world needed medicines, India increased its production and provided medicines, he said at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, according to PTI reports.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has applauded Vice President Kamala Harris for her achievements, saying she was an inspiration to women across the world including India and the United States. According to PTI, Modi also heaped praise on Harris’ mother and said she kept her relationship with India alive despite living thousands of miles away.“Madam Vice President, you have taken this inspiration today to newer heights. Your achievements are an inspiration to not only the women in America but to women in India and women all across the world. This is really inspiring,” Modi said in his remarks at a State Department luncheon hosted in his honor by Harris and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Friday.

US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to strengthening US-India ties, as she along with Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted a luncheon for the Indian leader at the State Department.

Prime Minister Modi is currently in Washington on a state visit at the invitation of President Joe Biden. The two leaders held a historic summit on Thursday. Biden also held a state dinner for him on Thursday.

"Prime Minister Modi, President Joe Biden and I are grateful for your commitment to strengthening the ties...between the United States and India. And we share that commitment under your leadership and that of President Biden our partnership has become more expansive than it has ever been," she said.

Harris said over the past two and a half years she along with Prime Minister Modi advanced cooperation on climate change on clean energy, terrorism, cybercrime, public health and vaccine production.

"And during this trip, our countries have launched new areas of cooperation from artificial intelligence to semiconductors. As we look toward the future, the United States and India, the world's oldest and largest democracies, instinctively turn to each other and are increasingly aligned," Harris said.

Harris also mentioned her mother Shyamala Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist who hailed from Chennai, during her address.

She also spoke about her deep connection to India and her grandfather.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the combination of technology and talent will be a guarantee for a bright future for the world.

Modi made the remark at the India-US Hi-Tech handshake event organised at the White House and attended by US President Joe Biden and CEOs of top Indian and American companies.

"This morning (meeting) is only among a few friends but has brought with it the guarantee of a bright future," he said as President Biden nodded.

Modi, who is on a state visit to the US, also stressed that there is a great opportunity for everyone to take along Biden's vision and capabilities and India's aspirations and possibilities.

United States president Joe Biden Friday addressed the top CEOs at a meeting in Washington, news agency PTI reported.

VIDEO | US President Joe Biden addresses top CEOs during a meeting in Washington. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/cdDWzRHJ4t — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 23, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held one-on-one meeting with top CEOs in Washington, news agency PTI reported. United States president Joe Biden, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Mahindra and Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra, American astronaut Sunita Williams attended the meeting, the news agency reported.

VIDEO | PM Modi holds one-on-one meeting with top CEOs in Washington. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/u6Nbu3rsGX — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 23, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the historic Al-Hakim Mosque during his two-day State visit to Egypt.

The visit is set to begin from June 24 (Friday). The visit to Cairo, the first by Modi as Prime Minister, comes weeks after Egypt skipped the G20 working group meeting in Srinagar along with China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

PM Modi will be visiting the historic Al-Hakim Mosque on his two-day State visit to Egypt which is set to begin from June 24. PTI will be on ground to bring you all the latest visuals from PM's visit. pic.twitter.com/nwPXsBQdB8 — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 23, 2023

Dear Readers,

While  addressing the US Congress , Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that when he first visited the US as the PM, India was the world’ 10th largest economy and eight years later it is the fifth-largest economy of the world. Further, he said that soon India will be the world’s third-largest economy in the world.

This categorisation of economies is based on aggregate GDP levels stated in current US dollar terms. In other words, one calculates the market value of all goods and services that are produced in every country in a year and then expresses it in terms of US dollars.

CHART 1 shows the top 10 economies by size and their GDP level in trillions of dollars. There is a vast gap between the US and China, which occupy the first two slots, and the rest of the field. Udit Misra explains.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to United States as "unprecedented," saying that several diplomatic and strategic decisions taken during the visit shall help build a "new India" with economic progress, news agency PTI reported.

BJP leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani, addressing a press conference at party's headquarters, said that the visit has led to "significant outcomes" in defence sector, mong others. "Fifteen standing ovations and over a hundred applause to the prime minister's speech at the US Congress, this was not only the hallmark of the prime minister's visit to the US but what is unprecedented is the Indo-US partnership in many critical areas which will help serve a better future the Indian populace," she added.

"Several diplomatic and strategic decisions were taken during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US which will help build a new India with the resolve of Atmanirbhar Bharat, and provide opportunities of economic progress to Indians," she said.

Irani said that NASA and ISRO will develop a "strategic framework" for human space flight cooperation by the end of 2023, and a joint Indo-US quantum coordination mechanism will help facilitate collaboration between the industry, academic and government, according to the report.

"Those who want to deflect attention from the prime minister's personal efforts undertaken in strategic cooperation in defence, artificial intelligence, ecosystem of semiconductor assembly line and critical mineral engagements would like to raise the minority bogey," she charged. As the general elections come closer such "political gas-lighting" is expected, she claimed. "What I am grateful to is the prime minister's steadfast focus on issues that are critical to Indian economy," she added, the report said. (PTI)

The decision of the United States and India to end six major trade disputes at World Trade Organization (WTO) is a "big victory" and will be mutually beneficial for both countries, India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said, news agency PTI reported.

The resumption of talks at the Trade Policy Forum has started yielding significant results, Goyal said. New Delhi will also remove retaliatory customs duties on certain American products such as almonds, walnuts, and apples, according to the report.

A joint statement issued after the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Washington said the two leaders welcomed the resolution of six outstanding WTO disputes through mutually agreed solutions. "It is a big victory for India and is a mutually beneficial arrangement for both countries," Goyal told the reporters. He said, now there are no pending India-US disputes at WTO.

"So, India and the US by the end of this year will have no disputes. All the six major ones have gone," the minister said adding "for the first time bilaterally we are ending the disputes." In 2015, India lost a long-pending dispute over poultry imports from the US at WTO's dispute settlement body. India had 12 months to comply with the WTO order. The US had sought trade sanctions against India in this case.

The six disputes include countervailing measures on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India, certain measures relating to solar cells and modules, measures relating to the renewable energy sector, export-related measures, certain measures on steel and aluminium products, and additional duties on some products from the US. (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held  high-level talks  with US President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, following which the latter described the ties between the two nations as “stronger than ever.”

Modi, who is on his maiden ‘ state visit’  to the United States, also  addressed  the US Congress – becoming the first Indian prime minister to do so twice. “When India grows, it influences and uplifts everyone,” he told the American parliament.

In the evening, the Bidens hosted a grand  state banquet in Modi’s honour – a celebrity-studded affair attended by top Indian and American leaders. Read more

In a decision that will bring the two countries’ space programmes closer than ever before,   India on Thursday signed on to the three-year-old Artemis Accords , a US-led alliance seeking to facilitate international collaboration in planetary exploration and research.

In a related development, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will partner the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US in sending a joint mission to the International Space Station, a permanent laboratory in space, next year. It was not immediately clear whether the joint mission would include an Indian astronaut to the space station. Read more

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first State visit to the US unfolded and he met President Joe Biden, the announcement of a mega deal between the  General Electric Aerospace and the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited  for the manufacture under licence in India of GE’s F414 engine for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Mk2 sent a clear message – the beginning of the end of the technology denial regime.

Besides jet engines, deals on procuring drones, a space mission and manufacturing chips in India are among the big-ticket announcements. Read more

Mary Millben, a prominent African-American Hollywood actress and singer will perform on Friday at the concluding event for the Official State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, news agecy PTI reported. 

Millben is popular in India for her singing of the National Anthem Jan Gana Mana and Om Jai Jagdiseh Hare. She will perform the Indian national anthem at an invitation-only, diaspora event hosted by the United States Indian Community Foundation (USICF) at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attended the US state dinner hosted by US President at White House where both the leaders expressed that the occasion celebrates great bonds of friendship between India and the United States.

They hailed a new era in their nation’s relationship and spoke about deals on defence and commerce, which are aimed at countering China’s influence. Read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first State visit to the US will take bilateral ties in areas of space, defence, emerging technology and supply chains to the next level, Vice President Kamala Harris has said.

Modi became the first Indian leader to address the joint session of the US Congress twice on Thursday. He first addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress in 2016.

"The US-India partnership is stronger than ever. Together, our nations will shape the future as we work to create a more prosperous, secure, and healthy world," Harris' office tweeted on Thursday. (PTI)

Welcome, @narendramodi . The partnership between the United States and India is one of the most important of the 21st century, and this visit will take our partnership to the next level — from space, to defense, to emerging technology and supply chains. pic.twitter.com/B55N16jRt7 — Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lauded the members of the US Congress for coming together to celebrate their country's ties with India, saying there must be a contest of ideas at home but people must also come together as one while speaking for the nation.

Modi's remarks in his address to a joint session of the US Congress on Thursday came against the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi's frequent swipes at his government during his visits abroad, which the ruling BJP has often projected as the opposition leader's bid to malign the country from foreign soil to target the central government.  (PTI) 

"Prime Minister's visit to the United States has resulted in significant outcomes in the areas of defence, renewable energy and critical mineral cooperation, to name a few," Union Minister Smriti Irani said while addressing a press conference at BJP headquarters in New Delhi.

She further said that the MoU on semiconductor supply chain and innovation partnership will promote not only research but commercial opportunities as well.

Union Minister Smt. @smritiirani addresses a press conference at party headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/RTuCm1lcB0 — BJP (@BJP4India) June 23, 2023

Top American lawmakers have applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his address to the Joint Meeting of the US Congress that called for deepening the strong friendship between the two democracies, fostered by a range of close economic ties and expanded cooperation on areas like defence, trade and technology.

Representing 1.4 billion Indians, Modi who addressed the US Congress on Thursday, said it is always a great honour and an exceptional privilege to address the US Congress twice. This is the second time that the prime minister has addressed the US Congress, the first time being in 2016. (PTI) 

Big names in the tech world and billionaire industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani, Google CEO Sunder Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook were among those invited to the State Dinner hosted in the honour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House on Thursday.

The menu, comprising mostly vegetarian dishes, taking note of the dietary restrictions of the visiting prime minister, included marinated millets, stuffed mushrooms, grilled corn kernel salad and cardamom-infused strawberry shortcake.

More than 400 guests were invited for the dinner hosted by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at a specially decorated pavilion on the South Lawn of the White House. (PTI)

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has said that technology cooperation featured prominently in the discussion between India and the US and described it as one of the most substantive outcomes of the ongoing state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Very clearly, technology, in particular advanced technology, across all domains ranging from defence to space and energy is one of the most important substantive outcomes," he told reporters in a media briefing on Thursday.

"Technology featured in talks, not in a limited way but technology cooperation across the ecosystem. This included technology transfer, services and working together in research among other domains," he added. (PTI)

During the official state dinner at the White House PM Narendra Modi talked about the growing popularity of Cricket in the US.

"Amidst the love for Baseball, Cricket is also getting popular in the US. The American team is trying their best to qualify for the Cricket World Cup to be held in India later this year. I wish them good luck and success," PM Modi said.

#WATCH | Amidst the love for Baseball, Cricket is also getting popular in the US. The American team is trying their best to qualify for the Cricket World Cup to be held in India later this year. I wish them good luck and success: PM Modi during the official State Dinner at The… pic.twitter.com/996i2fkdJx — ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023

Plant-based   courses of millet and stuffed mushrooms were on the menu for some 400 guests invited to Thursday’s fancy White House state dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi is a vegetarian and first lady Jill Biden enlisted California-based chef Nancy Curtis, who specializes in plant-based cooking, to help in the kitchen. Biden previewed the menu and decor for the news media on Wednesday after she returned from an outing with the prime minister. Read more

On Thursday (local time), 'Naatu Naatu' was highlighted by PM Narendra Modi in a special address during the State dinner at the White House.

"With every passing day, Indians and Americans are getting to know each other better. We can pronounce each other's name correctly, we can understand each other's accent better... Children in India become Spider-Man on Halloween and America's youth is dancing to the tunes of 'Naatu Naatu'," PM Modi said. (ANI)

#WATCH | Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra briefs about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing State visit to the USA pic.twitter.com/vPuK2IpYr0 — ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023

Acknowledging the progress made by Indian Americans in the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that they have played a significant role in further strengthening the inclusive society and economy of the US.

During his speech at the state dinner held at the White House, PM Modi said, "Indian Americans have come a long way in the US and have always found a respectful place in America's melting pot. Indian Americans have played a significant role in further strengthening the inclusive society and economy of the US." He also thanked US President Joe Biden for hosting a wonderful dinner and making the visit successful. (ANI)

#WATCH | US Congressmen lined up to take autographs and selfies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his address to the joint sitting of the US Congress, earlier today. pic.twitter.com/wkPdacGjHN — ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023

US President Joe Biden by his side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday that “democracy is in our DNA”, and “there is absolutely no question of discrimination” regardless of “caste, creed, religion and gender”. He was responding to a journalist’s question about what steps his government is willing to take to improve the rights of minorities in India and to uphold free speech.

At the joint press conference where the leaders took questions from one reporter from each side, Biden, on being asked about raising issues of human rights and democracy with the visiting Prime Minister, said, “Prime Minister and I had a good discussion about democratic values… and that is the best part of our relationship. We are straightforward with each other and we respect each other.” Read more

In an almost one hour speech to the US Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched upon a variety of themes. They were met with applause and standing ovation several times by the US Congress members, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

The speech this time was longer in duration than last time, which was about 45 minutes in 2016.

Here are the 15 key takeaways from the PM’s speech

PM Naredra Modi thanked US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden for hosting the State Dinner in his honour at the White House. "I extend my heartfelt appreciation to US President Joe Biden for hosting this remarkable dinner today. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to First Lady Jill Biden for her exceptional hospitality and diligent efforts in ensuring the success of my visit," says Modi.

#WATCH | I want to thank US President Joe Biden for this wonderful dinner today. I would also like to thank First Lady Jill Biden for taking care of my visit to make it successful. Yesterday evening you opened the doors of your house for me: PM Modi during the official State… pic.twitter.com/ZQqzZV2kz5 — ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2023

Jill and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with Prime Minister Modi today, expresses US President Joe Biden. Tonight, we are celebrating the exceptional bonds of friendship between India and the United States, he added.

VIDEO | 'Tonight it's a fitting way to celebrate,' says US President Joe Biden as he hosts PM Modi for State Dinner at the White House. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/Bvvw8tK9q1 — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 23, 2023

US President Joe Biden, accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, make their way towards the venue for the State Dinner at the White House.

#WATCH | US President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi head towards the venue for the State dinner at the White House. pic.twitter.com/IRlOuP4H72 — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Guests continue to arrive arriving at the White House ahead of the State Dinner hosted for PM Modi. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella are in attendance.

VIDEO | More visuals of guests arriving at the White House ahead of the State Dinner hosted for PM Modi. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/giMSq5Frcb — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the White House for State Dinner.

VIDEO | PM Modi poses for shutterbugs with US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden ahead of the State Dinner hosted for him at the White House. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/RZQkfTKsPX — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Modi categorically stated that terrorism is an enemy of humanity. PM Modi stressed the importance of confronting terrorism head-on while speaking to the joint session of the US Congress.

He said that radicalization and terrorism continue to pose serious challenges to the entire world even 20 years after 9/11 and 10 years after the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. 

It is essential for us to defeat any organisations that sponsor and export terrorism, adds Modi.

Terrorism is an enemy of humanity and there can be no ifs and buts in dealing with it. We must overcome all such forces sponsoring and exporting terror: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the joint sitting of the US Congress pic.twitter.com/mxfKyg6E1U — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Speaking to the US Congress' joint session, the prime minister declared that India had reached a critical milestone by becoming the only G20 nation to carry out its obligation under the Paris Agreement.

India has outperformed expectations by achieving its objective of using more than 40% renewable energy sources, which was attained nine years earlier than the initial target date of 2030, said PM Modi.

#WATCH | "...We became the only G20 country to meet its Paris commitment. We made renewables account for over 40% of our energy sources 9 years ahead of the target of 2030. But we did not stop there. At the Glasgow Summit, I proposed mission LiFE...Our mission is pro-planet… pic.twitter.com/6qnS29U4ZI — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

PM Modi stresses the urgent need to put an end to the bloodshed in the Ukraine war, urging for all possible efforts to be made in order to achieve that.

PM Modi said that India lives by the motto of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' — that the world is one family. He emphasized that it is the same attitude that India highlights as it chairs the G20 Summit.

In modern India, women are at the forefront of shaping a better future, says PM Modi during his address to the joint session of the US Congress.

He highlights that India's vision extends beyond mere development that benefits women; it encompasses a paradigm of women-led development, where women take charge of the journey towards progress.

#WATCH | "...today in modern India, women are leading us to a better future. India's vision is not just of development that benefits women. It is of women-led development where women lead the journey of progress. A woman has risen from a humble tribal background to be our Head of… pic.twitter.com/VwvucEA6VX — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Referring to the example of Draupadi Murmu, PM Modi applauded the ascent of a woman from a tribal background to become the President of India.

#WATCH | '...today in modern India, women are leading us to a better future. India's vision is not just of development that benefits women. It is of women-led development where women lead the journey of progress. A woman has risen from a humble tribal background to be our Head of… pic.twitter.com/VwvucEA6VX — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

When I first visited the US as Prime Minister, India held the position of the 10th largest economy globally. Today, I am proud to announce that India has risen to become the 5th largest economy. And I assure you, we are on track to become the third-largest economy in the near future. Not only are we expanding in size, but we are also growing at an accelerated pace, adds PM Modi.

He asserts that India's progress and economic growth have far-reaching implications, benefiting not only the nation itself but also having an impact on the entire world. When India grows, it influences and uplifts everyone, says PM Modi during his address to the joint session of the US Congress.

#WATCH | 'When I first visited the US as a PM, India was the 10th largest economy in the world. Today, India is the 5th largest economy. India will be the 3rd largest economy soon. We are not only growing bigger but we are also growing faster. When India grows the whole world… pic.twitter.com/saO9qgM7IA — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Democracy is a sacred and shared value embraced by both India and the United States. He acknowledges that throughout history, it has been evident that democracy upholds the principles of equality and dignity, says PM Modi. Democracy, according to him, is not just an idea, but a vibrant spirit that encourages open discussions and debates. It is deeply ingrained in the cultural fabric of both nations.

PM Modi further emphasizes that India is fortunate to have cherished these democratic values since time immemorial. He affirms the commitment to work together with the United States in order to create a brighter future for the world. By fostering democracy and upholding its values, the Prime Minister believes that they can collectively contribute to a better world for generations to come.

#WATCH | Democracy is one of our sacred and shared values. Throughout history, one thing has been clear, democracy is the spirit that supports equality and dignity. Democracy is the idea that welcomes debate and discourse. Democracy is the culture that gives wings to thought and… pic.twitter.com/UmikrInO2V — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserts that the foundation of America is inspired by the vision of a nation of equal citizens. He emphasises the presence of millions of people with Indian ancestors throughout the country, some of whom are proudly seated in the chamber, including one directly behind him, pointing to the Indian origin of US Vice President Kamala Harris.

#WATCH | 'I can relate to the battles of patience, persuasion and policy. I can understand the debate of ideas and ideology. But I am delighted to see you come together to celebrate the bonds between two great democracies - India and the United States,' PM Narendra Modi addresses… pic.twitter.com/VwS6T7sj1D — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the US House of Representatives, where he is warmly welcomed by the enthusiastic chants of 'Modi Modi'.

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the US House of Representatives. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will shortly address the Joint Session of the United States Congress.

#WATCH | US Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at the US House of Representatives, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the joint session of the US Congress. pic.twitter.com/2M50A7NHhk — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Prior to his address to the Joint Session of the United States Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy at the US Capitol.

#WATCH | Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy at the US Capitol. (Source: Speaker's office) pic.twitter.com/X4VacW1rEz — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Capitol Hill, where he will address the Joint Session of the United States Congress.

#WATCH | Washington, DC | Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Capitol Hill where he will address the Joint Sitting of the US Congress shortly. pic.twitter.com/82IR0bbtQF — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the Joint Session of the United States Congress shortly. Outside Capitol Hill, members of the Indian diaspora are waiting for PM Modi.

Washington, DC | Members of the Indian diaspora stand outside Capitol Hill, as they await the arrival of PM Narendra Modi. PM will address the Joint Sitting of the US Congress shortly. pic.twitter.com/ZQf4XvX3kt — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

PM Modi claims that the two countries' economic relationship is booming, with trade nearly doubling over the last decade to approach $191 billion.

He emphasises that this expansion has resulted in the development of tens of thousands of high-quality jobs in both India and the United States. PM Modi goes on to say that as a result of this strong economic alliance, one million American jobs in 44 states will be supported.

#WATCH | Our economic relationship is booming. Trade between our countries has almost doubled over the past decade to more than $191 billion supporting tens of thousands of good jobs in both India and the United States. One million American jobs across 44 states will be supported… pic.twitter.com/apMtQDCPQZ — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

At a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden at the White House, PM Modi declares that the partnership between India and the US knows no bounds.

“Even Sky isn’t the limit for India and US partnership. Indian-Americans are the real strength between India and the US and their relations”, says PM Modi at a joint PC with US President Joe Biden at the White House. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/Hfiq35dEP1 — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 22, 2023

PM Modi acknowledges that Indian-Americans are the true backbone of the India-US relationship, emphasizing their vital role in strengthening the ties between the two nations.

PM Modi expressed his surprise regarding the statements made about discrimination against religious minorities, emphasizing the deeply ingrained democratic values in both India and America.

The PM highlighted that democracy is an integral part of their national identity and shared heritage, flowing through their veins and spirits. Modi affirmed that democracy is not just a concept but a living reality manifested in their constitutions and governments.

Democracy can deliver and when we talk about democracy, there is no discrimination on basis of caste, creed, religion etc: PM Modi — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 22, 2023

US President Joe Biden underlines that the partnership between the United States and India as one of the most significant in the world, with unprecedented strength, closeness, and dynamism compared to any other time in history.

President Biden revealed that Indian companies are declaring over $2 billion in investments in the United States during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington.

The partnership is among the most consequential in the world that is stronger, closer and more dynamic in any time in history: US President Joe Biden issues joint press statement with PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/PtXpFW9LiW — ANI (@ANI) June 22, 2023

US President Joe Biden and PM Modi enter the East Room of the White House for a joint press briefing.

US President Joe Biden and PM Modi arrive at the East Room of the White House for joint press briefing. #PMModiUSVisit pic.twitter.com/hy4fYhnO5c — Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) June 22, 2023

India-US relationship is not only important for both the nations but also for the world. Today holds a special importance in history of India-US relations today, we discussed several regional and global issues during our meeting: PM Modi

The India-US relationship is reaching a new high point. But the significance of  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip  to the US will be obscured by short-term political framings. There will be the sheer political theatre of the US courting India and the Prime Minister leveraging this moment to shore up his domestic political legitimacy. There will be the disappointment of those who think the Biden Administration is actually going out of its way to give its imprimatur on the state of India’s democracy. But “democracy” was not going to be an issue in this phase of India-US relations.

PRATAP BHANU MEHTA WRITES | Making of a high point

PM Modi will address a joint session of the US Congress on June 22 , becoming the first Indian prime minister to be accorded this honour twice. Before him, only a handful of Indian PMs have given speeches to US Congressmen and Congresswomen. Here is a look at all those addresses and the context in which they were delivered.

Who are the Indian PMs who have addressed US Congress in the past? Read here

State visits are the highest-ranked category of foreign visits to the US, where the head of a state visits the US on the formal invitation of the US President. Before Modi, the only two state visits under President Joe Biden have been by France’s President Emmanuel Macron and South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol. Invitation for a state visit signifies that the US considers the guest nation an important friend and ally.

Express Explained | What is a state dinner, which he will attend at the White House?

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What to Know About Modi’s Visit and U.S.-India Relations

The visit has big implications for U.S.-India relations as President Biden seeks to shore up an alliance against Russia’s aggression and China’s economic influence.

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By Victoria Kim

Follow live updates as President Biden hosts Prime Minister Narendra Modi for meetings and a state dinner.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will receive a lavish welcome on Thursday in Washington, where he will address a joint session of Congress and be feted by President Biden and the first lady in a state dinner at the White House — only the third state leader to be hosted by the current administration.

Swirling around the pageantry of a momentous visit for U.S.-India relations, seen as an affirmation of India’s rise as an economic and diplomatic power, will be weighty questions of geopolitical alignments with regard to China’s economic influence and Russia’s military aggression, as well as the erosion of India’s secular democracy under Mr. Modi. How much if any of that will be publicly addressed by the two leaders is unclear.

The visit is a significant diplomatic prize for Mr. Modi , who was once denied a visa to the United States for his role in religious riots in his home state, and as prime minister has increasingly consolidated power and edged his country closer to one-party rule.

Still, the Biden administration has painstakingly sought to draw India closer, economically and militarily, at the cost of muddling his oft-stated worldview of a pitched battle between autocracies and democracies .

Here is what to know about Mr. Modi’s state visit.

The U.S. is trying to draw India closer.

Announcing Mr. Modi’s state visit, the White House press secretary said the occasion would celebrate “the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together.” Like his predecessors, Mr. Biden has leaned into the hope that India, the world’s most populous democracy and the fifth-largest economy, will serve as a counterweight to China’s growing global economic heft. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen last year visited India as part of the administration’s push to shift global supply chains away from its political and economic adversaries.

“New Delhi has a pivotal role to play in checkmating China — if politically nudged, militarily helped and geopolitically encouraged by the U.S. and its allies,” said Happymon Jacob, who teaches Indian foreign policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The urgency for improved relations has intensified with Russia’s war on Ukraine, a geopolitical crisis that has placed India at the center of jostling between the United States and its allies and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. India, while fostering closer ties with the United States, has maintained military and economic relations with Russia, buying up Russian oil at a discount and staying away from backing United Nations resolutions that have condemned Russia’s aggression.

Defense cooperation is high on the agenda.

The United States wants to help India bolster its domestic defense industry and increase military cooperation between the two countries in an attempt to wean India off its long dependence on Russia for its weaponry. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, each traveled to New Delhi this month ahead of the state visit to lay the groundwork for closer defense partnerships.

A substantial majority of India’s arsenal is estimated to be of Russian origin , the result of a decades-long defense relationship between the two countries at a time when the United States was instead supplying weapons to India’s rival, Pakistan. While the proportion of Russian arms in India’s defense imports has decreased in recent years, the country still remains dependent on Russia for parts and maintenance.

Highlighting increased technological cooperation, military coordination and intelligence sharing between the two countries, Mr. Austin said during his New Delhi visit: “This all matters because we face a rapidly changing world. We see bullying and coercion from the People’s Republic of China, Russian aggression against Ukraine that seeks to redraw borders by force and threatens national sovereignty.”

Modi is accused of undermining democracy.

In hosting Mr. Modi, Mr. Biden will be standing shoulder to shoulder with a leader who is immensely popular in his country but has sidelined challengers , co-opted judicial systems and consolidated power to a degree that has concerned observers and critics about the democratic erosion in the nation that recently surpassed China to become the world’s most populous.

This week, more than 70 Democratic lawmakers urged the president in a letter to raise upholding democratic values and human rights with the Indian prime minister, citing “troubling signs in India toward the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access.”

Mr. Modi’s India has become particularly perilous for the nation’s more than 200 million religious minorities, as his right-wing vigilante supporters have fomented religious tensions with the aim of imposing Hindu supremacy on India’s constitutionally secular democracy. That’s led to a perpetual sense of combustibility on the ground, particularly for India’s Muslims.

In March, Rahul Gandhi, India’s best-known opposition leader and Mr. Modi’s chief rival, was convicted on a charge of defamation and sentenced to two years in prison. He filed an appeal and remains free, but the conviction allowed Mr. Modi’s allies to oust him from the country’s Parliament.

Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.

Victoria Kim is a correspondent based in Seoul, focused on international breaking news coverage. More about Victoria Kim

What’s behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit?

The US is seeking stronger ties with India, which it sees as a vital ally in efforts to contain China’s rise.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden is scheduled to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an official visit later this week, as the two countries strengthen their ties amid shared antipathy towards China’s growing influence.

The White House will hold a state dinner in Modi’s honour on June 22, a sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two powers who have stepped up cooperation in areas such as trade and arms sales.

Keep reading

India, us agree on roadmap for defence industry cooperation, india’s pm narendra modi to address us congress, bbc gets india court summons in defamation case over modi film.

In a press release, the Biden administration said that a recent trip to New Delhi by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “underscored the dynamism of the US-India partnership in advance of Prime Minister Modi’s historic official state visit next week to the United States”.

But human rights groups say the celebratory dinner is a de facto endorsement of India’s far-right turn under Modi’s leadership — and undermines the Biden administration’s stated goal of emphasising human rights and democracy in its foreign policy.

During Modi’s tenure, India’s Muslims and other minorities have experienced an uptick in violence and repression as the government leans into a form of Hindu nationalism known as Hindutva . Modi has also been criticised for seeking to consolidate power and crack down on dissent.

“A state dinner is a special occasion; it’s not something that just any foreign leader receives,” Edward Mitchell, the deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera over a phone call.

“How can the White House honour a leader who is an open anti-Muslim bigot, a right-wing ideologue who censors journalists and turns a blind eye to lynchings? You can work with India and Modi without taking this extra step to celebrate him.”

Confronting China

While advocacy groups have called for greater scrutiny of India’s human rights record , foreign policy experts say the Biden administration is primarily interested in the country as a potential counterweight to China, which the US sees as its most formidable global competitor.

Sarang Shidore, Director of Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute, a US-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that he believes the US-India relationship will continue to grow as long as their shared concern over China remains in place.

“The United States does not conduct its foreign policy based on democracy and human rights. It conducts its foreign policy based on its interests, as all states do,” Shidore said.

China’s growing military power and assertive territorial claims have become a source of concern for nearby Asian countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and India. The US has worked to fashion alliances with many of those countries in an attempt to contain China’s expanding influence.

“No question, there is increased Chinese nationalism,” said Shidore. “And China sees India as an increasing challenge due to its relationship with the US.”

Expanding ties

That was not always the case. During the Cold War, India’s relations with the US were often frosty. The country had cultivated close ties with the USSR and helped spearhead the Non-Aligned Movement, an organisation of countries that rejected pressures to join either pro-US or pro-Soviet blocs.

For its part, the US was a key ally of Pakistan. And by the early 1970s, the administration of US President Richard Nixon started to build a cooperative relationship with China, as an attempt, in part, to place pressure on the USSR.

But as the Cold War ended and China’s economic rise became a preoccupation of US foreign policy, India — with its size and economic heft — started to be seen as a key regional ally.

Despite its improved ties with the US, however, India has continued to resist what it sees as a false choice between the US and countries like President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But as Russia wages war in Ukraine and Washington seeks to isolate Moscow economically and diplomatically, that balancing act has become more difficult for India to maintain.

While India has increased its purchase of weapons from countries such as France and the US and recently agreed on a roadmap to increase cooperation with the US defence industry, it remains the world’s largest importer of Russian arms.

India has also joined China in buying up Russian oil at discounted prices, while the US and the European Union angle to limit Russia’s power in the global energy market.

But Shidore said that India’s status as a central player in Washington’s Asia strategy gives it significant leverage . Its ties to Russia are not likely to get in the way of its relationship with the US, he explained.

“India has played this quite well, playing Russia and the US off each other, and has benefitted in the process,” he said. “A country like India, which has such a strong convergence with the US on China, can create major spaces where it will differ very strongly from the US and can ride that out.”

Consolidating control

While US relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel have come under political scrutiny in recent years, Modi’s trip to the US has been welcomed with bipartisan support. An a joint letter inviting Modi to address Congress during his visit, members of the US House of Representatives and Senate have hailed the visit as a sign of the “enduring friendship” between the two countries.

“During your address, you will have the opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face,” the letter reads.

However, Modi’s human rights record has not gone entirely unremarked. On Tuesday, a group of more than 70 lawmakers from the US House and Senate penned a letter to the Biden urging him to discuss concerns about religious freedom and journalistic expression in his talks with Modi.

The Muslim rights group CAIR, meanwhile, has issued a statement calling on the White House to drop its plans for a state dinner.

Modi’s high-profile reception in the US is a far cry from what he experienced before he was first elected prime minister in 2014. Prior to becoming India’s leader, Modi had been banned from entering the US due to allegations that he turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was the province’s chief minister.

The deadly 2002 riots were the subject of a BBC documentary that Modi tried to ban in January, invoking his emergency powers as prime minister. The rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch screened the documentary in Washington on Tuesday.

Human rights groups say the move to ban the film was representative of a larger effort under Modi to stifle dissent and exercise control over independent institutions. They also accuse his government of pursuing an agenda influenced by far-right Hindu nationalism.

In an annual report on religious freedom in May, the US State Department expressed concern about the situation in India, noting that there were “open calls for genocide against Muslims”, lynchings and “attacks on places of worship”.

In May, for the fourth year in a row, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom called on the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern”.

In some states controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), politicians who lean into violent anti-Muslim rhetoric face little reprimand. Some Hindu nationalist paramilitaries have also waged a campaign against interfaith marriages , which they portray as an effort to dilute the Hindu population and win converts to Islam through “love jihad”.

Shidore, however, said that Modi’s human rights record has been quickly “papered over” and is unlikely to prevent cooperation with the US, so long as China remains a serious global competitor.

“The United States”, he said, “has set human rights issues aside in order to strengthen ties”.

Indian Prime Minister Modi’s Visit to Washington Is His Most Important So Far. Here’s What to Know

O n Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden will meet India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on an official state visit in Washington D.C, which includes a South Lawn welcome, a state dinner, and an address to a joint session of Congress—an honor rarely granted to a visiting foreign leader. Modi will become just the third world leader, after France’s Emmanuel Macron and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol, to receive this kind of diplomatic reception from President Biden.

While Modi has visited the U.S. many times—most recently for a three-day visit in September 2021, where he held a bilateral meeting with Biden—this will be the first time the Prime Minister’s trip will be categorized as the highest ranked visit according to diplomatic protocol. (The last state visit to the U.S. by an Indian leader was by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009.)

As India takes center stage as the world’s most populous country , one of the fastest growing economies, and a powerhouse for tech and innovation, the Biden Administration hopes it can court the country as a crucial ally to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

Read More: How India’s Record-Breaking Population Will Shape the World

More from TIME

“The visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific and our shared resolve to elevate our strategic technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space,” the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement .

Below, what to know about the upcoming visit.

What are the top priorities for Modi’s state visit?

The state visit will include conversations aimed at further cementing an already-growing defense and manufacturing relationship between the U.S. and India. More recently, Washington and New Delhi have been engaged in discussions about jointly producing jet engines, long-range artillery, and military vehicles. In May, India joined Biden’s 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which primarily aims to reduce China’s economic dominance through manufacturing, but without drawing up a formal trade agreement. Now, American company General Electric is hoping to co-produce military jets in the country, while the U.S. has increased investment in a semiconductor and chip manufacturing ecosystem set in India as a way to decrease dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

“The United States has really oriented a lot of its domestic and foreign policy around this question of, ‘how do we counter the Chinese challenge?’” says Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at Carnegie. “So if you think about semiconductors and chip manufacturing, India is a big player right now.”

In the weeks leading up to Modi’s visit, both the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan have also made trips to New Delhi in an attempt to cut through the red tape to secure deals.

Read More: What Modi’s Visit to Washington Tells Us About Indian American Voters

This week, Reuters reported that India was inching closer to buying more than two dozen U.S.-made armed drones worth $2 to $3 billion to help enhance border surveillance and improve counterterrorism intelligence operations. The development comes after Sullivan, along with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Indo-U.S. collaboration in specific high-technology areas, including semiconductors, next-generation telecommunication, artificial intelligence and defense.

For India, striking deals with the U.S. will in turn strengthen the country’s hard power capabilities and make it a hotbed for innovation. “They are hoping to get more U.S. dollars, more U.S. companies, and more U.S. entrepreneurs to make India a central part of their growth and expansion plans,” says Vaishnav.

Why do the U.S. and India want to counter China?

Experts say both countries see their strategic interests converge in countering China’s threat as it becomes more expansionist and ambitious on the global stage. For the U.S., China has increasingly become its biggest competitor in the spheres of influence, while India has been embroiled in territorial disputes in the Himalayas ever since it fought a brief war with China in 1962.

In 2020, tensions between India and China flared when Beijing became more assertive over land claims along the shared Himalayan border and an altercation between Indian and Chinese military forces in the northern Indian region of Ladakh reportedly left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead. China’s close ties to Pakistan has also resulted in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of the Belt and Road Initiative and controversially passes through a section of Kashmir controlled by Islamabad, adding to India’s concerns.

By helping India build up its economic and defense capabilities, Washington hopes to coordinate with New Delhi to tackle global challenges as part of its long-term interests, says Vaishnav. “Washington is really looking to create a framework of deterrence to essentially deter Chinese expansionism, and they view India as a linchpin in this strategy,” he says.

How has the relationship between India and the U.S. changed?

Relations between India and the U.S. have changed in notable ways over the years. After independence from British rule in 1947, India was more closely aligned with Russia during the Cold War era due to U.S. distrust and estrangement over India’s nuclear program, while the U.S. had a stronger partnership with India’s rival, Pakistan.

The two countries remained “estranged democracies,” according to the former U.S. Ambassador, Dennis Kux, until the early 1990s. However, since the early 2000s, U.S. administrations from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump have worked to build a strong relationship with India, recognizing its potential to be a strategic partner in ensuring the security of the Indo-Pacific region.

In 2005, India and the U.S. signed a major nuclear deal under which India was recognized de facto as a nuclear weapons power. More recently, India’s participation in the Quad, a security alliance between the U.S. and its allies, Australia, Japan and India, has led to the country becoming a critical element of American defense strategy.

Last year, the two countries conducted joint military exercises not far from the disputed Indo-China border, and in May, joined Biden’s 14-member Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which officials and business executives hope will reduce American reliance on Chinese manufacturing for mutual benefit, including increased iPhone shipments from Indian-based factories.

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Indian Prime Minister Modi to visit the U.S.

Ayesha Rascoe

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Seema Sirohi – a columnist for The Economic Times – about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state visit to the US this week.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

The White House will roll out the red carpet this week for a crucial Asian ally. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Biden on Thursday, with a lavish state dinner also on the schedule. That same day, Modi will address a joint session of Congress. The Biden administration has made deepening ties with India a top foreign policy priority as it hopes to counter China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region. Seema Sirohi is a columnist for The Economic Times, one of India's most influential newspapers, and author of the book "Friends With Benefits: The India-U.S. Story." She joins us now to discuss the trip. Welcome.

SEEMA SIROHI: Nice to be with you.

RASCOE: The White House is pulling out all the stops for Prime Minister Modi. Why is this relationship so important to the U.S.?

SIROHI: Well, the U.S. has identified China as a competitor, as a rival. So India has become very important for U.S.'s Indo-Pacific policy because the U.S. wants to retain its No. 1 position in the region. India, which has China on its border, is in a very sort of border standoff situation for the past two years. So the interests of both India and the United States have converged on countering China, to put it very simply. And then there are many, many other reasons why the U.S. thinks of India as a major partner. India needs the U.S. for its own development. The U.S. needs the talent from India. As you might know, there are almost 200,000 Indian students in the United States, and Indian Americans are increasingly very, very important, both politically as well as in the economic arena.

RASCOE: And so what will Prime Minister Modi want from President Biden during this visit? Like, what are his priorities?

SIROHI: So for India, technology transfer is a top priority. Becoming part of the supply chains is another very big priority. Both countries trust each other, and they are building what they call resilient supply chains so that the world will not be dependent on just one factory that is China. There is a deal that might be signed for one of the major U.S. companies to invest in trying to create a semiconductor ecosystem in India. Another big deal that is likely to be announced is for the U.S. General Electric to co-produce its military jet engines in India. And that's a huge step forward 'cause India has long wanted technology transfer. In the past things have stalled because the U.S. hasn't been so amenable to that.

RASCOE: And so, I mean, you've been covering this relationship for decades, so how has it changed over the years?

SIROHI: What I can tell you is when I first came to Washington, India was not an important partner for the United States. Everything was about China and Pakistan, both of which are rivals of India. Then President George W. Bush changed dramatically the U.S. policy towards India because Bush's idea was why aren't the two democracies better friends? So India and the U.S. signed a major nuclear deal under which India was recognized de facto as a nuclear weapons power. Now people are comparing that transformative moment to today.

RASCOE: Prime Minister Modi has been accused of eroding Indian democracy and suppressing criticism of his ruling party. Do you think any of that will be raised this week?

SIROHI: It won't be raised in public, I would say - not by the administration, not at the White House. But you might see some comments from congressmen and senators on Capitol Hill. But right now, realism in terms of geopolitics tops human rights concerns, to put it very bluntly. Countering China is very important for the United States at this moment, and getting as many allies and partners in line on the American side is the main goal.

RASCOE: That's Seema Sirohi, a newspaper columnist and author of "Friends With Benefits: The India-U.S. Story." Thank you so much for being with us.

SIROHI: Thank you.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

PM Modi US visit: Dates, full schedule, events, agenda, and more

Pm modi's us visit would focus on strengthening ties, addressing mutual challenges, promoting trade relationships, and more.

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Day 1, June 21: Yoga in New York

Day 2, june 22: congress address, state reception, and state dinner, june 23: ceo meetings, lunch at state dept, and mega event for indian diaspora, june 24: pm modi will forge new paths in egypt.

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As Modi visits, Indian American lawmakers face balancing act

Speaking out against Modi government carries risks for US politicians in diaspora constituencies where PM is popular

• Modi US visit – live updates

A head of Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington this week, Pramila Jayapal – a progressive Democratic congresswoman – circulated a letter signed by dozens of congressional lawmakers calling for Joe Biden to acknowledge the erosion of human rights and democracy during the Indian prime minister’s nine years in power.

“A series of independent, credible reports reflect troubling signs in India toward the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access,” it warned.

The letter was also signed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; notable in their absence, however, were several other Indian American politicians and Democrats , including Ro Khanna, Shri Thanedar, Ami Bera and Raja Krishnamoorthi.

Modi’s state visit comes at a consequential time for the small but record number of Indian Americans in Congress.

Many of these same lawmakers have led some of the country’s most vocal and comprehensive responses to the threats against US democracy, from the bipartisan focus on China to voting rights legislation.

But speaking out on India’s crackdown on religious freedoms, press and speech comes with political risk: some lawmakers serve large diaspora constituencies and surveys suggest at least half of Indian Americans remain supportive of Modi. The voting bloc is also only growing in political influence and importance – now 4 million strong and on track to be the largest among Asian Americans.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Indian Americans are speaking out against Modi’s brand of Hindu nationalism – Hindutva – and its repercussions in India and abroad.

“It’s difficult terrain for Indian American politicians to have to navigate or lead a response to the Modi visit,” said Sara Sadhwani, a politics professor at Pomona College and author and researcher of the Indian American Elections Survey. “It’s one thing to support the relationship of the US and India. It’s another thing to support a leader.”

Khanna, a congressman from California , represents the largest Asian American district in the country. The Democratic-majority district is home to some of the most concentrated south Asian communities in the US, and Khanna was recently named co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.

But when Khanna has broached the topic of Modi in recent years, he has quickly met backlash from Modi supporters and critics alike. In 2019, he tweeted a call for Hindu American politicians to “stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians”. More than 200 Indian American organizations immediately lodged complaints, and called for him to resign from the Congressional Pakistan Caucus.

Last month, when Khanna joined the House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, in inviting Modi to address Congress , advocacy organisations and activists such as the Indian American Muslim Council expressed their own disappointment .

“I support very strongly the US-India strategic relationship and I also believe it has to be grounded in a commitment to the rule of law, to pluralism, to human rights – we have to build and strengthen the relationship,” Khanna told the Guardian, adding that the “vast majority” of his constituents felt the same. His office did not immediately comment on Jayapal’s letter.

Krishnamoorthi, a congressman from Illinois also acknowledged the complicated issues of democracy in India, but pointed to the country’s role in the context of the US’s tensions with China.

“What’s very important is that right now democracy is under threat [in the US and India] and we have to do what it takes to buck up,” he said. “I’ve lived through January 6 – it represents how fragile our own democracy is. At the same time I’m aware of what’s happening in India and concerned.

“We have to make sure we leverage each other’s strengths and promote democracy everywhere. Because remember there is an alternative model out there that is being shopped by the Chinese Communist party.”

Such qualified acknowledgments of the threats facing democracy in India don’t go far enough for some.

“The White House and Congress are making a terrible mistake by celebrating Modi on this trip,” said Arjun Sethi, a Georgetown Law professor and human rights activist. “Human rights abuses continue to worsen under his administration and they should be asking him very difficult questions instead of honoring him.”

Sethi pointed to numerous internet blackouts that the Modi government has used to quell dissent and the extreme tactics to stifle the press, whether by blocking accounts on Twitter or deporting journalists . But he said the onus was not just on lawmakers, but on members of the community itself.

“There is a well-known phenomenon among south Asians in America who proclaim to be liberal and supporters of human rights – except when it comes to Modi, violence and hate against marginalized communities in India,” he said.

Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow focused on south Asian politics at the American Enterprise Institute, said lawmakers like Khanna have to do a “balancing act” to serve both a progressive base and Modi supporters. But he also said the chasm between Indian Americans supporting Modi and those who were either critical or indifferent of him was only expected to grow with the younger population.

“ Hindu nationalism as an ideology is innately unappealing, and there’s a large proportion of the Indian American community that is not Hindu,” he said. “The ideas espoused by the BJP [Modi’s party] are simply not compatible with liberal democracy as we understand it.”

The White House, in the meantime, has done its own balancing act. Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said the administration will “make our views known” on India’s press and religious freedoms, according to Reuters. “We do so in a way where we don’t seek to lecture or assert that we don’t have challenges ourselves.

With all of the careful political calculus, Thursday’s events promise to be contentious. Some members of Congress – including Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – will boycott Modi’s address to the chambers because of anti-Muslim sentiment. And thousands of Indian Americans, which will probably include influential political donors, invited to Modi’s address could encounter protesters outside the White House complex.

But for some Indian American lawmakers, the ability to simultaneously represent the US and strengthen a relationship with India is worth protecting.

“I just want to focus on the people of both countries,” said Thanedar, a congressman from Michigan. “I’d like to see a much stronger relationship with India than we’ve seen in the last several decades.”

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PM Modi's two-hour-long event for Indian diaspora in US on June 23. Top points

Modi us visit 2023 schedule: narendra modi will visit the us from june 21-24 at the invitation of us president joe biden and first lady jill biden..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the US from June 21-24 at the invitation of US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. They will host Modi at a state dinner on June 22. The visit also includes an address to the Joint Session of the Congress on June 22.

On June 23, Modi will address an invitation-only gathering of diaspora leaders from across the country at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC. Modi's event with the Indian diaspora will focus on their role in “India’s growth story”.

Top points on PM Modi's address to Indian diaspora in US

1. Modi's event will be for two hours from 7pm to 9pm (local time) on June 23.

2. Award-winning international singer Mary Millben will perform for Modi and other guests at a diaspora reception hosted by the United States Indian Community Foundation (USICF) at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

3. Millben will on the invitation of India's Permanent Representative to the UN, attend the 9th International Day of Yoga at the UN Headquarters (UNHQ) on June 21 with Modi.

4. Dr Bharat Barai, a popular community leader and organiser of Modi's Ronald Reagan Center event in the US, said the prime minister is the most popular public figure, leader in the world, not just in India.

5. Modi's address to the Indian diaspora will be at a relatively modest gathering in Washington DC because of his tight schedule, dashing the hopes of community leaders who had hoped to organise a gala event, news agency PTI reported.

6. With the Indian diaspora numbering nearly 4.5 million and spread across the country, its members expect Modi to connect with them in major cities, and he has been speaking to them in different US cities during his visits.

7. "Narendra Modi is the most popular Indian prime minister for the global Indian diaspora. Now he is the most popular world leader," said Barai, chairman of the Indian American Community Foundation, which had initially planned a mega carnival-like event in Chicago to rival the welcome the prime minister received at Madison Square Garden in 2014 and in Houston in 2019.

8. "The PM was gracious enough to delay his departure from DC by a few hours, and granted a slot for the diaspora meeting," Barai told PTI.

9. Only a select gathering of nearly 1,000 people will be able to attend.

10. Indian Americans are expected to travel to the US capital in large numbers to witness the official welcome ceremony for Modi on June 22, a day after he leads a Yoga Day event at the UN headquarters in New York, soon after he lands in the United States.

Have 11 years' experience in print and digital media. Write on politics, defence and world affairs, and have a keen eye for human-interest stories. ...view detail

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Why the US is selling India so many weapons

Prime Minister Modi visits the White House, and arms deals follow.

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington for a state visit this week. Beyond the black-tie dinner at the White House and a speech to Congress , there have been a lot of arms deals.

Jets, drones, cyber capabilities, and more.

It’s a significant list, and builds on an expanding military partnership. The US has partnered with India more and more in response to China ’s rise, seeing New Delhi as a valuable counterweight. This is happening as India advances grievous human rights abuses against minorities, against journalists, and against political critics — all in contradiction of America’s stated values .

And yet this week, the White House is promoting a “next generation defense partnership” with India. This includes the co-production of cutting-edge technologies like jet engines and semiconductors , the prospect of new arms sales, and agreements that would allow the US to have its navy ships repaired in India. The country will also purchase 31 advanced drones from General Atomics in a deal that will cost some $3 billion. And the Pentagon and the Indian Ministry of Defense have established a new military-tech incubator called INDUS-X .

Experts point out that India under Modi increasingly does not share American values, and some of the advanced military technologies that the US is providing the country could be used against dissidents or journalists.

“If we’re just going to go full-on countering China with India as a realist approach to things, that can come back and bite us,” says Derek Grossman, a defense analyst at the RAND Corporation. “Because, as we saw during the Cold War, a lot of the dictators or semi-authoritarian regimes that we cozied up with, they were not our friends in the long run.”

US-India defense cooperation, very briefly explained

India built a relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and to this day, most of the Indian military’s weapons come from Russia . It wasn’t until the mid-2000s that India started buying arms from the United States, growing from around nothing in 2008 to $8 billion of US sales to the country by 2013 , and to $20 billion in 2020 .

Now, the new agreements will help create capacities for India as an arms producer. The Pentagon’s top Asia official, Ely Ratner, says the US was helping modernize the Indian military. The US Embassy in New Delhi described an initiative to “fast-track technology cooperation and co-production in areas such as air combat and land mobility systems, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, munitions, and the undersea domain.”

India wants to manufacture military and aerospace products. In this respect, the prospective General Electric engine deal represents a major change. Export controls and trade regulations have previously been a challenge for forging advanced production lines in India. “Engine technology is pretty sensitive,” says Vikram Singh of the United States Institute of Peace and the consulting firm WestExec Advisors. “This is a big, ambitious agenda.”

Both countries are eyeing China’s growing military and technological prowess, and the US is particularly concerned about the perceived threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

But Grossman, who previously spent a decade working on China policy at the Pentagon, says that the US goal of bolstering India’s defense is less about creating a partner who would actively participate in any US-China confrontation and actually more about India providing safe harbor on the continent. “What the United States is really looking for is access to India, in the case of a conflict against China,” he told me. “But the hope is that over time, as we continue our security cooperation, India will kind of bend a little bit, to be more flexible and maybe allow us access at certain times to certain places that can help us conduct operations.”

The US Navy established ship repair agreements with India that would enable the US to service its boats in Indian shipyards, with more agreements forthcoming, according to the White House. Grossman also emphasized that, in 2020, US Navy aircraft refueled on India’s base in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. “They’re letting us do that in peacetime; why wouldn’t they let us do that when the stakes are much higher?” he said.

But even beyond the democratic issues, there are limits to how close this partnership could get in the near term. India remains non-aligned: It hasn’t taken a side in the Ukraine war, nor signed on to the sanctions against Russia. While India is a member of the “ Quad ,” an informal partnership with the US, Japan, and Australia, it is not a treaty ally of the United States. Grossman said that many in the Defense Department would like to see the US move toward a formal alliance with India.

That would be messy, notably because Pakistan is India’s prime rival and Pakistan is a close partner of the United States. Both countries have nuclear weapons, so if the US were to establish a treaty with India, the dynamics of a potential India-Pakistan conflict would be staggeringly complex for the US and dangerous for the world.

Nevertheless, the US military partnership with India has become a pillar of the Biden administration ’s policy toward Asia. Interestingly, the US goes out of its way to not say it has anything to do with China, although analysts uniformly agree that it’s all about China. “The strategic environment that we’re facing in the Indo-Pacific challenges to peace and stability, I think those have animated a sense of Indian purpose more generally,” a senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters.

The defense sector, unsurprisingly, is thrilled. Just ask the Asia Group, a consulting firm that advises clients like General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon and was founded by Kurt Campbell, who’s now the Biden White House’s point person on Asia policy.

Campbell’s former firm says the time is now to invest in India. “Companies that postpone entry or expansion in India might miss opportunities to maximize their long-term returns,” Gopal Nadadur, an Asia Group executive based in India, wrote recently. “Defense and aerospace companies like Airbus, Boeing, Dassault, General Electric, General Atomics, Raytheon Technologies and Pratt & Whitney have boosted their engineering and manufacturing operations in India.”

Will defense innovation make Asia safer?

Bringing in military-tech startups and investment firms has been a core strategy of the Pentagon in recent years, and that’s also now going to play a part in the US-India relationship. On Wednesday, the Chamber of Commerce hosted what it called an “innovation bridge” — the INDUS-X event.

US and Indian startups that focus on the military, aerospace, and satellites attended, alongside venture capital firms and major defense contractors like Raytheon and Boeing. The proceedings were sponsored by General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and one of the big Indian companies, Mahindra Defence. The INDUS-X joint initiative will be “a catalyst for India to achieve its target of $5 billion in defense exports by 2025 and for India to diversify its defense supply chain,” according to the Chamber.

One of the keynote speakers, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, told attendees that he expected “huge growth,” in the two countries’ defense partnership, “the hockey stick curve that all entrepreneurs dream of.”

Participants did not directly discuss China, according to Pushan Das of the US-India Business Council, but it was the impetus for the gathering. “The reason why we’re doing all of this — the reason why there is the US-India defense-industry road map — it is because both countries have a common threat. They face a common challenge,” he told me. “And that’s pushing the defense relationship forward.”

But the focus on business interests has often meant that less attention has been paid in the commercial community to how increased military production and surveillance technologies in India could embolden Modi.

Modi is a Hindu nationalist leader who journalist Fareed Zakaria says is responsible for the decay of Indian democracy . His attacks on political rivals, the press, and minorities call into question the strategic benefits of growing military cooperation with the country. To cite a recent example, India arrested Vivek Raghuvanshi, a contributor to the US-based outlet Defense Times, in May.

Senior Biden administration officials told a press conference that raising human rights concerns would be part of President Biden’s private conversations with Modi, but declined to provide specificity. Human rights concerns did not come up in the conversations at INDUS-X, according to Das, and Air Force Secretary Kendall did not raise them in his remarks.

Singh, who worked in the Obama Pentagon, says that pragmatism is necessary to counter China. “We look at Prime Minister Modi, like a lot of other complicated partners, be it in Southeast Asia, like Vietnam or Thailand, or in Europe, like Poland, or Hungary, or Turkey ,” he told me. “But I think we’ve reached a point where American leaders are able to talk to Indian leaders about these sorts of concerns.”

There’s also another risk of flooding India with arms that Campbell, who served in the Obama State Department, warned of in his 2016 book The Pivot: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia .

“China and India both remain under 2 percent of GDP for defense spending, while, for comparison, between 2009 and 2013, US Defense spending averaged 4.4 percent of GDP,” he wrote. “If Asian powers were to devote the same proportion to defense spending as the United States, the region would quickly become even more dangerous.”

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Musk delays India visit and meeting with Modi as Tesla, SpaceX eye huge market

Elon Musk postponed a visit to India which would have included a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he must tend to pressing issues at Tesla Inc. 

“Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year,” the billionaire said in a post on X . He had been scheduled to visit for two days — April 21 and 22 — to  announce plans  to enter the Indian market.

The decision to postpone comes after a hectic week at Tesla. Early Sunday, Musk announced in a memo to the company’s more than 140,000 employees that he was reducing headcount by more than 10% globally. Two top executives also departed.

On Wednesday, the company said it will ask shareholders to vote again on a $56 billion compensation package for Musk that was voided by a Delaware court in January. And on Friday, Tesla recalled almost 3,900 Cybertruck pickups and cut the price of most of its cars in the US by $2,000 as sales slow and inventories rise. 

The company will also report first-quarter earnings on April 23, having already reported vehicle deliveries that  missed estimates  by a wide margin. The stock has fallen more than 40% this year, dropping the automaker’s market value to less than $470 billion.  

Musk’s planned India visit was critical in terms of timing for both him and Modi. India has kicked off voting for its national elections where Modi is seeking a third term, citing the nation’s economic rise. Investments from billionaires like Musk would burnish his appeal among voters. 

Musk is seeking permission for SpaceX’s Starlink to operate in what will be by far its biggest market. Starlink has already received assurances from India’s government that it will be able to start operating in the country as soon as the third quarter of this year, Bloomberg reported  earlier . 

Tesla has also been trying to break into India for years, but high import taxes were a deterrent — something Musk has pointed out repeatedly. India last month lowered import taxes on EVs from foreign carmakers that pledge to invest at least 41.5 billion rupees ($497 million) and start EV production from a local factory within three years.

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Modi will hold bilateral talks with Biden and address a joint session of Congress, followed by a lavish dinner reception at the White House. The US and India have long enjoyed warm relations, but this visit is particularly momentous.   

• By Sushmita Pathak

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden wave from the Blue Room Balcony during a State Arrival Ceremony at the White House in Washington, June 22, 2023. 

The lawns of the United Nations headquarters in New York were dotted with yellow yoga mats as hundreds of people gathered on Wednesday morning to stretch together. Among them was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — leading International Yoga Day celebrations as part of his three-day trip to the United States. 

The Indian leader has visited the US several times since taking office in 2014. But this trip is a rare state visit — the highest diplomatic honor for a foreign leader. President Joe Biden has only invited two other leaders — French and South Korean — for such visits, and Modi is only the third Indian leader to receive such an invitation.

On Thursday, Modi will hold bilateral talks with Biden and address a joint session of Congress, followed by a lavish dinner reception at the White House. The US and India have long enjoyed warm relations, but this visit is particularly momentous.   

“Every once a decade or thereabouts, you have a visit that really moves the ball forward,” said Richard Rossow, chair of the US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “And it feels like both governments are talking about this visit as kind of along those lines.”

Despite Delhi and Washington not seeing eye to eye on some key issues, the Biden administration has bestowed Modi with the honor, even as human rights groups raise concerns about Modi’s allegedly anti-Muslim policies back home.

In India, Modi supporters see the visit as a moment of pride. One pro-government news channel used the hashtag #ModiMagicInAmerica with its anchor Arnab Goswami saying that the US had more at stake than India. 

“It is just one more telling statement, ladies and gentlemen, of how India’s place in the world has risen in the Modi years,” Goswami declared during his news segment. 

The US and India have had strong people-to-people ties for years, with a large and influential Indian-American diaspora. Trade between the two countries has also been flourishing for decades. But Modi’s visit this week could see the two nations join hands to strengthen another pillar of their partnership. 

“There will be a great deal of focus on defense and security cooperation, as well as technology cooperation,” said Lisa Curtis, director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “The US is setting the stage for an announcement that it will co-produce jet-engine technology with India, which is a huge deal. Only a handful of countries have this kind of technology capabilities.”

India is also close to signing a deal to buy MQ-9B armed surveillance drones from the US. Earlier this month, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, met India’s defense minister, Rajnath Singh, in Delhi to set up a road map for defense industry cooperation.

While the US wants to help India enhance its military capabilities, Curtis said, “Part of the goal here is to wean India away from its dependence on Russian military technology.”

About half of India’s weapons imports come from Russia. This defense partnership is the cornerstone of the close ties between Delhi and Moscow, which date back to the Cold War. It’s also why India has not condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. While the US isn’t particularly happy about this, Curtis said it has largely accepted it.

“India is too important for the United States over the longer term, and so, there is a willingness to set aside the US-India differences over Russia,” Curtis said.

On the Indian side, there has been a “sea change” in the outlook towards the US, said Rajan Menon, director of the Grand Strategy Program at the Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities. 

In the 1970s, relations between the two were “frosty,” Curtis said. During the India-Pakistan war of 1971, Washington sided with Islamabad as Delhi turned to Moscow. But over the past two decades, and under Republican and Democratic administrations, the US has warmed up to India. In recent years, the two nations have also been pushed toward each other by another Asian giant. 

“China is playing matchmaker here,” Rossow said.

Tensions between the US and China have been at a historic low. Meanwhile, India and China are engaged in a standoff over their disputed border in the Himalayas, where fighting breaks out sporadically. Besides security concerns, Rossow said, Biden and Modi will also discuss cooperation in strategic commercial sectors to keep China’s rise in check.

“Areas that are important for global growth and technology evolution, and those areas where China has a market moving position, so critical minerals and rare earth, 5G and 6G, undersea cables, artificial intelligence, quantum, even commercial space exploration,” Rossow said. “Can we break China’s stranglehold and their ability to use these things as commercial threats against other countries?”

Menon said that this is a “new chapter” in US-India relations and one that is “largely China-driven.” And while India is welcoming deeper ties with the US, it is also careful not to upset other nations.

“India’s government will have to balance how it handles the relationship with the US with its long-standing relationship with Russia,” Menon said. “It doesn’t want to alienate both China and Russia simultaneously. So, there’s a kind of a delicate dance going on.”

In India, Modi’s visit is being seen as proof that Delhi has played its balancing act between Washington and Moscow well.

As the White House prepares to welcome Modi for a state banquet, human rights groups are protesting against his visit, saying his policies back home target religious minorities. Modi was once denied a US visa for his alleged role in anti-Muslim riots in 2002.

“[The US] talks a good game on the human rights front, and sometimes, we’re sincere, but when it comes to concrete interests, we’re perfectly willing to put them to the side,” Menon said. 

Rossow said that the Biden administration will raise human rights concerns with Modi, but in private. 

“They’re not going to want to tip over the applecart by pushing too hard,” he said, because the broader relationship with India is too important.

In 2006, then-Sen. Biden laid out a grand vision for US-India relations. 

“My dream is that in 2020, the two closest nations in the world will be India and the United States. If that occurs, the world will be safer,” he  said then . 

“I don’t think we’re quite there; it is more aspirational right now,” Curtis said. 

India and the US are not allies and probably never will be, she said. But they are strategic partners with mutual interests that span several areas. Related:   Amid war in Ukraine, India maintains ‘strategic partnership’ with Russia

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Joint Statement from the United   States and   India

1.        President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today affirmed a vision of the United States and India as among the closest partners in the world – a partnership of democracies looking into the 21 st century with hope, ambition, and confidence.  The U.S.-India Comprehensive Global and Strategic Partnership is anchored in a new level of trust and mutual understanding and enriched by the warm bonds of family and friendship that inextricably link our countries together.  Together, we will build an even stronger, diverse U.S.-India partnership that will advance the aspirations of our people for a bright and prosperous future grounded in respect for human rights, and shared principles of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.  Our cooperation will serve the global good as we work through a range of multilateral and regional groupings – particularly the Quad– to contribute toward a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific.  No corner of human enterprise is untouched by the partnership between our two great countries, which spans the seas to the stars.   Charting a Technology Partnership for the Future   2.        President Biden and Prime Minister Modi affirm that technology will play the defining role in deepening our partnership.  The leaders hailed the inauguration of the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in January 2023 as a major milestone in U.S.-India relations.  They called on our governments, businesses, and academic institutions to realize their shared vision for the strategic technology partnership.  The leaders recommitted the United States and India to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual confidence and trust that reinforces our shared values and democratic institutions.   3.        President Biden and Prime Minister Modi set a course to reach new frontiers across all sectors of space cooperation.  The leaders applauded our growing cooperation on earth and space science, and space technologies. They welcomed the decision of NASA and ISRO to develop a strategic framework for human spaceflight cooperation by the end of 2023.The leaders hailed the announcement by NASA to provide advanced training to Indian astronauts at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, with a goal of mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024.The leaders celebrated the delivery of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite to ISRO’s U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, India, and looked forward to NISAR’s 2024 launch from India.  Welcoming India’s Space Policy – 2023, the leaders called for enhanced commercial collaboration between the U.S. and Indian private sectors in the entire value chain of the space economy and to address export controls and facilitate technology transfer. President Biden deeply appreciated India’s signing of the Artemis Accords, which advance a common vision of space exploration for the benefit of all humankind.     4.        President Biden and Prime Minister Modi committed their administrations to promoting policies and adapting regulations that facilitate greater technology sharing, co-development, and co-production opportunities between U.S. and Indian industry, government, and academic institutions.  The leaders welcomed the launch of the interagency-led Strategic Trade Dialogue in June2023 and directed both sides to undertake regular efforts to address export controls, explore ways of enhancing high technology commerce, and facilitate technology transfer between the two countries.   5.        President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed the signing of an MoU on Semiconductor Supply Chain and Innovation Partnership as a significant step in the coordination of our countries’ semiconductor incentive programs.  This will promote commercial opportunities, research, talent, and skill development.  The leaders welcomed an announcement by Micron Technology, Inc., to invest up to $825 million to build a new semiconductor assembly and test facility in India with support from the Indian government.  The combined investment valued at $2.75 billion would create up to 5,000 new direct and 15,000 community jobs opportunities in the next five years.  The leaders also welcomed Lam Research’s proposal to train 60,000 Indian engineers through its Semiverse Solution virtual fabrication platform to accelerate India’s semiconductor education and workforce development goals, and an announcement by Applied Materials, Inc., to invest $400 million to establish a collaborative engineering center in India.    6.         President Biden and Prime Minister Modi share a vision of creating secure and trusted telecommunications ,  resilient supply chains, and enabling global digital inclusion.  To fulfill this vision, the leaders launched two Joint Task Forces on advanced telecommunications, focused on Open RAN and research and development in 5G/6G technologies. Public-private cooperation between vendors and operators will be led by India’s Bharat 6G Alliance and the U.S. Next G Alliance.  We are partnering on Open RAN field trials and rollouts, including scaled deployments, in both countries with operators and vendors of both markets, backed by U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) financing.  The leaders welcomed participation of Indian companies in the U.S. Rip and Replace Program.  They endorsed an ambitious vision for 6G networks, including standards cooperation, facilitating access to chipsets for system development, and establishing joint research and development projects.  President Biden and Prime Minister Modi also stressed the need to put in place a “Trusted Network/Trusted Sources” bilateral framework.   7.        President Biden and Prime Minister Modi welcomed the establishment of a joint Indo-U.S. Quantum Coordination Mechanism to facilitate collaboration among industry, academia, and government, and our work toward a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Technology agreement.  The United States welcomes India’s participation in the Quantum Entanglement Exchange and in the Quantum Economic Development Consortium to facilitate expert and commercial exchanges with leading, like-minded quantum nations.  The United States and India will sustain and grow quantum training and exchange programs and work to reduce barriers to U.S.-India research collaboration.  The leaders welcomed the launch of a $2million grant program under the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment fund for the joint development and commercialization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies, and encouraged public-private collaborations to develop high performance computing (HPC) facilities in India.  President Biden also reiterated his government’s commitment to work with U.S. Congress to lower barriers to U.S. exports to India of HPC technology and source code.   The U.S. side pledged to make its best efforts in support of India’s Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) joining the U.S. Accelerated Data Analytics and Computing (ADAC) Institute.   8.        The leaders welcomed 35 innovative joint research collaborations in emerging technologies funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST).  Under a new implementation arrangement between NSF and DST, both sides will fund joint research projects in computer and information science and engineering, cyber physical systems, and secure and trustworthy cyberspace. Furthermore, NSF and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will bring fresh funding for joint projects in applied research areas such as semiconductors, next generation communication, cyber security, sustainability and green technologies and intelligent transportation systems.   9.        Both President Biden and Prime Minister Modi acknowledge the profound opportunities and significant risks associated with AI.  Accordingly, they committed to develop joint and international collaboration on trustworthy and responsible AI, including generative AI, to advance AI education and workforce initiatives, promote commercial opportunities, and mitigate against discrimination and bias. The United States also supports India’s leadership as Chair of the Global Partnership on AI.  The leaders applauded Google’s intent to continue investing through its $10 billion India Digitization Fund, including in early-stage Indian startups.  Through its AI Research Center in India, Google is building models to support over 100 Indian languages.   10.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed our deepening bilateral cooperation on cutting-edge scientific infrastructure, including a $140 million in-kind contribution from the Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Fermi National Laboratory toward collaborative development of the Proton Improvement Plan-II Accelerator, for the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility — the first and largest international research facility on U.S. soil.  They also welcomed the commencement of construction of a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India.  The leaders called on their administrations to extend these partnerships to advanced biotechnology and biomanufacturing, and enhance biosafety and biosecurity innovation, practices, and norms.   Powering a Next Generation Defense Partnership   11.      The U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership has emerged as a pillar of global peace and security.  Through  joint exercises, strengthening of defense industrial cooperation, the annual “2+2” Ministerial Dialogue, and other consultative mechanisms, we have made substantial progress in building an advanced and comprehensive defense partnership in which our militaries coordinate closely across all domains.  The leaders appreciated the strong military-to-military ties, mutual logistics support, and efforts to streamline implementation of foundational agreements.  They noted that information sharing and placement of Liaison Officers in each other’s military organizations will spur joint service cooperation.  They also reiterated their resolve to strengthen maritime security cooperation, including through enhanced underwater domain awareness. The leaders welcomed the launch of dialogues in new defense domains including space and AI, which will enhance capacity building, knowledge, and expertise.   12.      Expressing their desire to accelerate defense industrial cooperation, the leaders welcomed the adoption of a Defense Industrial Cooperation Roadmap, which will provide policy direction to defense industries and enable co-production of advanced defense systems and collaborative research, testing, and prototyping of projects.  Both sides are committed to addressing any regulatory barriers to defense industrial cooperation.  The leaders also noted the decision of India’s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense to commence negotiations for concluding a Security of Supply arrangement and initiate discussions about Reciprocal Defense Procurement agreement.   13.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed the landmark signing of an MoU between General Electric and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the manufacture of GE F-414 jet engines in India, for the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Light Combat Aircraft Mk 2.  This trailblazing initiative to manufacture F-414 engines in India will enable greater transfer of U.S. jet engine technology than ever before.  The leaders committed their governments to working collaboratively and expeditiously to support the advancement of this unprecedented co-production and technology transfer proposal.    14.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi also welcomed India’s emergence as a hub for maintenance and repair for forward deployed U.S. Navy assets and the conclusion of  Master Ship Repair Agreements with Indian shipyards.  This will allow the U.S. Navy to expedite the contracting process for mid-voyage and emergent repair.  As envisaged in the Defense Industrial Roadmap, both countries agree to work together for the creation of logistic, repair, and maintenance infrastructure for aircrafts and vessels in India.   15.      The leaders welcomed the setting up and launch of the U.S.-India Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X). As a network of universities, startups, industry and think tanks, INDUS-X will facilitate joint defense technology innovation, and co-production of advanced defense technology between the respective industries of the two countries. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Force has signed its first International Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Indian start-up 114 AI and 3rdiTech. Both companies will work with General Atomics to co-develop components using cutting edge technologies in AI and semiconductors respectively.   16.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi welcomed India’s plans to procure General Atomics MQ-9B HALE UAVs.  The MQ-9Bs, which will be assembled in India, will enhance the ISR capabilities of India’s armed forces across domains. As part of this plan, General Atomics will also establish a Comprehensive Global MRO facility in India to support of India’s long-term goals to boost indigenous defense capabilities.   Catalyzing the Clean Energy Transition   17.      As climate action and clean energy leaders, the United States and India share a common and ambitious vision to rapidly deploy clean energy at scale, build economic prosperity, and help achieve global climate goals.  They recognize the critical role of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and India’s ambitious production-linked incentives scheme for cutting-edge clean and renewable technologies.  The leaders highlighted the U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership and Strategic Clean Energy Partnership (SCEP) as reflective of this commitment.  The leaders welcomed joint efforts to develop and deploy energy storage technologies, including through the establishment of a new task force under SCEP. The leaders welcomed the launch of the U.S.-India New and Emerging Renewable Energy Technologies Action Platform, which will accelerate cooperation in green hydrogen, offshore and onshore wind, and other emerging technologies. They will collaborate to achieve their respective national goals to reduce the cost of green/clean hydrogen under India’s National Green Hydrogen Mission and the U.S. Hydrogen Energy Earthshot.  The United States welcomed India’s decision to co-lead the multilateral Hydrogen Breakthrough Agenda. The leaders called for the development of joint efforts in carbon capture, utilization, and storage, given its role in reducing emissions.  The leaders welcomed India’s VSK Energy LLC’s announcement to invest up to $1.5 billion to develop a new, vertically integrated solar panel manufacturing operation in the United States and India’s JSW Steel USA’s plans to invest $120 million at its Mingo Junction, Ohio, steel plant to better serve growing markets in the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.   18.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi underscored the importance of decarbonizing the transportation sector, including by accelerating the deployment of zero emissions vehicles, continued collaboration to promote public and private financing for electric transportation, and the development of biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuels.  To this end, the leaders lauded the creation and development of the Global Biofuels Alliance, which will be launched in July 2023, with the United States as a founding member.  Both leaders welcomed the signing of an MOU under which the U.S. Agency for International Development will support Indian Railways’ ambitious target to become a “net-zero” carbon emitter by 2030.The United States and India also announced plans to create a payment security mechanism that will facilitate the deployment of 10,000 made-in-India electric buses in India, augmenting India’s focused efforts in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving public health, and diversifying the global supply chain.   19.      India and the United States committed to create innovative investment platforms that will effectively lower the cost of capital and attract international private finance at scale to accelerate the deployment of greenfield renewable energy, battery storage, and emerging green technology projects in India.  The United States and India will endeavor to develop a first-of-its kind, multibillion-dollar investment platform aimed at providing catalytic capital and de-risking support for such projects.    20.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed their support for the mission of the International Energy Agency (IEA), and President Biden pledged to continue working with the Government of India, IEA members, the IEA Secretariat, and other relevant stakeholders toward IEA membership for India in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement on an International Energy Program.     21.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi affirmed the intention of the two governments, as trusted partners, to work together to ensure that our respective markets are well-supplied with the essential critical minerals needed to achieve our climate, economic and strategic technology cooperation goals.  The leaders pledged to hasten bilateral collaboration to secure resilient critical minerals supply chains through enhanced technical assistance and greater commercial cooperation, and exploration of additional joint frameworks as necessary.  The United States enthusiastically welcomes India as the newest partner in the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP), to accelerate the development of diverse and sustainable critical energy minerals supply chains globally while agreeing to the principles of the MSP including environmental, social, and governance standards.  The leaders lauded the announcement of India’s Epsilon Carbon Limited’s plans toinvest $650 million in a U.S. greenfield electric vehicle battery component factory.   22.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi underscored the important role nuclear energy plays in global decarbonization efforts and affirmed nuclear energy as a necessary resource to meet our nations’ climate, energy transition, and energy security needs.  The leaders noted ongoing negotiations between the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Westinghouse Electric Company (WEC) for the construction of six nuclear reactors in India.  They welcomed intensified consultations between the U.S. DOE and India’s DAE for facilitating opportunities for WEC to develop a techno-commercial offer for the Kovvada nuclear project. They also noted the ongoing discussion on developing next generation small modular reactor technologies in a collaborative mode for the domestic market as well as for export. The United States reaffirms its support for India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and commits to continue engagement with likeminded partners to advance this goal.   23.      The leaders recognize that addressing sustainable consumption and production is a key component to achieving of the development, environment and climate ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs.  In this regard, President Biden welcomed Prime Minister Modi’s Lifestyle for Environment initiative (LiFE) as a successful national model to address the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and land degradation, and resolved to work together to implement the G20 High Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development.   Deepening Strategic Convergence   24.      As global partners, the United States and India affirm that the rules-based international order must be respected. They emphasized that the contemporary global order has been built on principles of the UN Charter, international law, and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.   25.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi expressed their deep concern over the conflict in Ukraine and mourned its terrible and tragic humanitarian consequences.  The leaders underscored the serious and growing impacts of the war on the global economic system, including on food, fuel and energy security, and critical supply chains.  They called for greater efforts to mitigate the consequences of the war, especially in the developing world.   Both countries further pledge to render continuing humanitarian assistance to the people of Ukraine.  They called for respect for international law, principles of the UN charter, and territorial integrity and sovereignty.  Both countries concurred on the importance of post-conflict reconstruction in Ukraine.   26.      The United States and India reaffirmed their resolve to counter any attempts to unilaterally subvert the multilateral system. The leaders underscored the need to strengthen and reform the multilateral system so it may better reflect contemporary realities. In this context both sides remain committed to a comprehensive UN reform agenda, including through expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of the UN Security Council.  Sharing the view that global governance must be more inclusive and representative, President Biden reiterated U.S. support for India’s permanent membership on a reformed UN Security Council(UNSC).  In this context, President Biden welcomed India’s candidature as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the 2028-29 term, in view of India’s significant contributions to the UN system and commitment to multilateralism, as well as its active and constructive engagement in the Inter-Governmental Negotiations process on Security Council reforms, with an overall objective of making the UNSC more effective, representative, and credible. 27.       President Biden and Prime Minister Modi recommitted themselves to empowering the Quad as a partnership for global good.  The two leaders welcomed the progress made at the Hiroshima Summit last month among the four maritime democracies to further advance a positive and constructive agenda for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.  The leaders welcomed progress on the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, through which Quad partners are providing maritime domain data across the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific regions. The Quad to be hosted in India in 2024 would be another opportunity to continue the dialogue and consolidate cooperation.  The leaders committed to continue working in partnership with regional platforms such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association, Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, and ASEAN to achieve shared aspirations and address shared challenges in the Indo-Pacific Region.  Prime Minister Modi welcomed the United States joining the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and President Biden welcomed India’s continued participation as an observer in the Partners in the Blue Pacific.  28.      The leaders also welcomed the depth and pace of enhanced consultations between the two governments on regional issues including South Asia, the Indo-Pacific and East Asia and looked forward to our governments holding an inaugural Indian Ocean Dialogue in 2023. 29.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated their enduring commitment to a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous India-Pacific region with respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and international law.  Both leaders expressed concern over coercive actions and rising tensions, and strongly oppose destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force. Both sides emphasized the importance of adherence to international law, particularly as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight, in addressing challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the East and South China Seas. 30.      The leaders expressed deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Myanmar, and called for the release of all those arbitrarily detained, the establishment of constructive dialogue, and the transition of Myanmar toward an inclusive federal democratic system. 31.      The leaders also condemned the destabilizing ballistic missile launches of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which violate relevant UN Security Council resolutions and pose a grave threat to international peace and security.  They reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and urged DPRK to comply with its obligations under these resolutions and engage in substantive dialogue.  They stressed the importance of addressing the concerns regarding DPRK’s proliferation linkages related to weapons of mass destruction, their means of delivery, and related items in the region and beyond.

32.       The United States and India stand together to counter global terrorism and unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations.  President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups including Al-Qa’ida, ISIS/Daesh, Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), and Hizb-ul-Mujhahideen.  They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism, the use of terrorist proxies and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks.  They called for the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and Pathankot attacks to be brought to justice. They noted with concern the increasing global use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones and information and communication technologies for terrorist purposes and reaffirmed the importance of working together to combat such misuse. They welcomed the cooperation between our two governments on counterterrorism designations and homeland security cooperation, including in intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation, and called upon the Financial Action Task Force to undertake further work identifying how to improve global implementation of its standards to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. 33.      The leaders reiterated their strong support for a peaceful, secure, and stable Afghanistan.They discussed the current humanitarian situation and concurred on the need to continue to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan. The leaders urged the Taliban to abide by UNSC Resolution 2593 which demands that Afghan territory should never be used to threaten or attack any country, shelter or train terrorists, or plan or finance terrorist attacks. Committing to continue close consultations on the situation in Afghanistan, the leaders emphasized the importance of formation of an inclusive political structure and called on the Taliban to respect the human rights of all Afghans, including women and girls, and to respect freedom of movement.

34.       President Biden and Prime Minister Modi looked forward to strengthening a long-term strategic partnership between the I2U2 countries of India, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and the United States to leverage markets to build more innovative, inclusive, and science-based solutions to enhance food and energy security, improve movement of people and goods across hemispheres, and increase sustainability and resilience.

35.  President Biden and Prime Minister Modi reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to an open, secure, inclusive, safe, interoperable, and reliable Internet, and to continuing cooperation on a range of cybersecurity issues, including preventing and responding to cyber threats, promoting cybersecurity education and awareness and measures to build resilient cyber infrastructure.  Both the United States and India are committed to sharing information about cyber threats and vulnerabilities, and to working together to investigate and respond to cyber incidents.    36.      The United States and India reaffirm and embrace their shared values of freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, pluralism, and equal opportunities for all citizens.  Both countries have a tradition of recognizing the diversity represented in their nations and celebrating the contributions of all their citizens.  They reasserted that democracy, freedom, and rule of law are the shared values that anchor global peace and sustainable development. In keeping with the spirit of leaving no one behind, both leaders committed to working towards ensuring that fruits of economic growth and well-being reach the underprivileged. They also committed to pursue programs and initiatives that would facilitate women-led development, and enable all women and girls to live free from gender-based violence and abuse. President Biden underscored his appreciation for India’s participation in the Summit for Democracy process, and for efforts made by India toward sharing knowledge, technical expertise, and experiences with electoral management bodies of other democracies. The leaders also welcomed the re-launch of the Global Issues Forum, which would hold its next meeting at an appropriate time.   Propelling Global Growth   37.      As two of the world’s largest democratic economies, the United States and India are indispensable partners in advancing global prosperity and a free, fair, and rules-based economic order.  President Biden highlighted the impactful participation of Prime Minister Modi in the G7 Hiroshima Summit and looks forward to the G20 Summit in September in New Delhi. He applauded India’s leadership in its ongoing G20 Presidency, which has brought renewed focus on strengthening multilateral institutions and international cooperation to tackle global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, fragility and conflict, along with work to accelerate achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and lay the foundation for strong, sustainable, balanced, and inclusive growth.   38.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi are united in their determination to use the G20 to deliver on shared priorities for the G20 Leaders’ Summit, including improving the sovereign debt restructuring process; advancing the multilateral development bank evolution agenda, including mobilizing new concessional financing at the World Bank to support all developing countries; and raising the level of ambition on mobilizing private sector investment for quality, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure, including through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment. The United States looks forward to hosting the G20 presidency in 2026, nearly two decades after the first full-scale G20 Leaders’ Summit in Pittsburgh.   39.      The United States and India recognize the potential of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) approaches for enabling open and inclusive digital economies. President Biden and Prime Minister Modi intend to work together to provide global leadership for the implementation of DPI to promote inclusive development, competitive markets, and protect individual rights.  In this regard, the United States and India will explore how to partner together and align our efforts to advance the development and deployment of robust DPIs, including appropriate safeguards to protect, privacy, data security and intellectual property.  They will explore developing a U.S.-India Global Digital Development Partnership, which would bring together technology and resources from both countries to enable development and deployment of DPIs in developing countries. 40.      The leaders are committed to pursuing ambitious efforts to strengthen Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to address shared global challenges of the 21 st century. In this regard, they emphasized the need for comprehensive efforts by MDBs to evolve their vision, incentive structure, operational approaches and financial capacity so that they are better equipped to address a wide range of SDGs and trans-boundary challenges including climate change, pandemics, conflicts and fragility. Recognizing multilateral efforts in this area, the leaders acknowledged the ongoing work under the Indian presidency of the G20 on strengthening MDBs including the report of the G20 Expert Group on Strengthening MDBs.  By the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, the United States and India will work together to secure G20 commitment to create a major new dedicated pool of funds at the World Bank to deploy concessional lending for global challenges, and to enhance support for crisis response in International Development Association recipient countries.   41.      The leaders reaffirmed that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is an important pillar of our collective and collaborative efforts to build resilience in our supply chains, harness transformations in clean energy, and accelerate progress of our economies through anti-corruption efforts, efficient tax administrative practices, and capacity building measures.  The leaders welcomed the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the proposed IPEF Supply Chain Agreement and committed to working with other partners expeditiously to conclude negotiations of the agreements under the clean economy and fair economy pillars to deliver concrete benefits that enhance the economic competitiveness and prosperity of countries in the Indo-Pacific. President Biden invited India to attend the APEC Summit in San Francisco in November 2023 as a guest of the host.   42.      The U.S.-India trade and investment partnership is an engine for global growth, with bilateral trade exceeding $191 billion in 2022, nearly doubling from 2014.  The leaders applauded the reconvening of the U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue and CEO Forum in March in New Delhi.  They encouraged respective industries to take action on the recommendations from the CEOs for greater engagement and technical cooperation to build resilient supply chains for emerging technologies, clean energy technologies, and pharmaceuticals; promote an innovative digital economy; lower barriers to trade and investment; harmonize standards and regulations wherever feasible; and  work towards skilling our workforces.  The leaders support continued active engagement between the U.S. Treasury Department and the Indian Ministry of Finance under the Economic and Financial Partnership dialogue.  They encouraged the U.S. Federal Insurance Office and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India to advance areas of mutual interest in the insurance sector under their existing MoU framework.   43.      The United States and India have also taken steps toward deepening bilateral cooperation to strengthen our economic relationship, including trade ties. Underscoring the willingness and trust of both countries in resolving trade issues, the leaders welcomed the resolution of six outstanding WTO disputes between the two countries through mutually agreed solutions as well as their understandings on market access related to certain products of significance to the bilateral trade relationship.  They also looked forward to reconvening the India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum before the end of 2023 to further enhance the bilateral trade relationship by addressing trade concerns and identifying further areas for engagement. India highlighted its interest in the restoration of its status under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences program, which could be considered in relation to eligibility criteria determined by the U.S. Congress.  The leaders supported intensifying the work to advance progress on issues related to the eligibility criteria. Prime Minister Modi also expressed India’s interest towards being recognized as a Trade Agreements Act-designated country by the United States to further enhance the integration of both economies and to further promote trade and investment between two countries.  In this regard, the leaders welcomed the initiation of discussions between both sides at an official level on issues related to bilateral government procurement.   44.      The leaders welcomed focused efforts under the re-launched U.S.-India Commercial Dialogue to expand cooperation in the areas of Talent, Innovation, and Inclusive Growth.  President Biden expressed appreciation for the significant workforce development efforts undertaken by several of the Indian companies taking part in the U.S.-India CEO Forum to upskill more than 250,000 employees and promote STEM learning within local communities across the United States.  Both leaders applauded the concept of an “Innovation Handshake” under the Commercial Dialogue that will lift up and connect the two sides’ dynamic startup ecosystems, address specific regulatory hurdles to cooperation, and promote further innovation and job growth, particularly in emerging technologies.  The Innovation Handshake demonstrates the resolve on both sides to further bolster their shared vision of an elevated strategic technology partnership, leveraging the strength and ingenuity of their respective private sectors to identify new innovations and match them with industry requirements across the priority sectors identified under the iCET framework.    45.      Recognizing the essential role that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) play in advancing inclusive growth, expanding exports, and boosting employment across our respective cities, towns, and rural areas, the leaders welcomed plans under the Commercial Dialogue to organize a forum to promote the role and scope of MSMEs in bilateral trade and a digital commerce showcase to strengthen the engagement of women-owned and rural enterprises in particular.  They commended the work of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Indian Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which are pursuing increased cooperation and intend to formalize their work through a MoU to support entrepreneurs and MSMEs.   46.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi again welcomed Air India’s historic agreement with Boeing to acquire more than 200 American-made aircraft.  This purchase will support more than one million American jobs across 44 states and contribute to ongoing efforts to modernize the civil aviation sector in India.  Boeing has announced a $100 million investment on infrastructure and programs to train pilots in India, supporting India’s need for 31,000 new pilots over the next 20 years. The leaders also welcomed Boeing’s announcement of its completion of a C-17 aftermarket support facility for MRO and a new parts logistics center in India to capture future synergies between defense and civil aviation.   Empowering Future Generations and Protecting the Health of our People   47.      President Biden and Prime Minister hailed the growing bilateral education partnership between the United States and India.  Indian students are on pace to soon become the largest foreign student community in the United States, with an increase of nearly 20 percent in Indian students studying in the United States last year alone.  The leaders welcomed the establishment of a new Joint Task Force of the Association of American Universities and leading Indian educational institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology, and the nomination of councils on each side, and noted their interim recommendations for expanding research and university partnerships between the two countries.  They also welcomed the establishment of Indo-U.S. Global Challenge Institutes to spark deeper research partnerships and people-to-people exchanges between a range of diverse institutions in the U.S. and India in semiconductors, sustainable agriculture, clean energy, health and pandemic preparedness, and emerging technologies.   48.      The leaders welcomed an announcement by the U.S. Department of State that it would launch a pilot to adjudicate domestic renewals of certain petition-based temporary work visas later this year, including for Indian nationals, with the intent to implement this for an expanded pool of H1B and L visa holders in 2024 and eventually broadening the program to include other eligible categories.   49.      The leaders affirmed that the movement of professional and skilled workers, students, investors and business travelers between the countries contributes immensely to enhancing bilateral economic and technological partnership. While acknowledging the important steps taken to augment processing of visa applications, they noted the pressing need to further expedite this process. The leaders also directed officials to identify additional mechanisms to facilitate travel for business, tourism, and professional and technical exchanges between the two countries.   50.      Concomitant with the rapid growth in our strategic partnership and demand for travel, both sides intend to open new consulates in each other’s countries. The United States intends to initiate the process to open two new consulates in India in the cities of Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.  India will take steps to operationalize its new consulate in Seattle later this year, and open two new consulates at jointly identified locations in the United States.   51.      The leaders recognized the role of asocial security totalization agreement in protecting the interests of cross border workers and reaffirmed the intent to continue ongoing discussions concerning the elements required in both countries to enter into a bilateral social security totalization agreement.   52.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi celebrate the historic and active collaboration across the full expanse of our respective health sectors. They welcomed the opportunity for deeper collaboration to secure pharmaceutical supply chains.  The leaders encouraged their administrations to continue their strong collaboration on pandemic preparedness, supported by epidemiology training; laboratory strengthening and point of entry surveillance; and food safety and regulation.  The leaders applauded collaborations between research institutes of both countries on affordable cancer technology programs, including for the development of AI enabled diagnostic and prognosis prediction tools, and on diabetes research.  The leaders committed to holding a U.S.-India Cancer Dialogue, hosted by President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, to bring experts together from both countries to identify concrete areas of collaboration to accelerate the rate of progress against cancer. They also called for expanded collaboration on digital health platforms including responsible use of cutting-edge technologies like AI, and to explore cooperation in research and the use of traditional medicine. President Biden lauded Prime Minister Modi’s plan to eliminate tuberculosis in India by 2025, five years ahead of the target set by the UN’s sustainable development goals, hailing it as a big step forward that will inspire other countries to action.   53.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi welcomed the opportunity for deeper collaboration to secure, de-risk, and strengthen pharmaceutical supply chains, with a focus on active pharmaceutical ingredients, key starting materials, and key vaccine input materials. They also underscored the need for strengthening global collaboration network on research and development in medical countermeasures,  vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics to promote access to safe, effective, and innovative medical products in an affordable manner.   54.      President Biden and Prime Minister Modi committed to work toward a broader and deeper bilateral drug policy framework for the 21 st century.  Under this framework, both countries aspire to expand cooperation and collaboration to disrupt the illicit production and international trafficking of illicit drugs, including synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl and Amphetamine Type Stimulants and illicit use of their Precursors. Toward this end, they committed to a holistic public health partnership to prevent and treat illicit drug use, address workforce shortages and skilling requirements, and showcase a secure, resilient, reliable and growing pharmaceutical supply chain as a model for the world.   55.      Prime Minister Modi conveyed his deep appreciation for the repatriation of antiquities to India by the United States.  Both sides expressed strong interest in working quickly toward a Cultural Property Agreement, which would help to prevent illegal trafficking of cultural property from India and enhance cooperation on the protection and lawful exchange of cultural property.   56.      The Leaders welcomed the establishment of the Tamil Studies Chair at the University of Houston and reinstating the Vivekananda Chair at the University of Chicago to further research and teaching of India’s history and culture.   57.      Prime Minister Modi looked forward to the visit of President Biden to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi in September 2023.   58.      Taken together, the leaders today affirmed that this document, in its breadth and depth,  represents the most expansive and comprehensive vision for progress in the history of our bilateral relationship.  Still, our ambitions are to reach ever greater heights, and we commit both our governments and our peoples to this endeavor, now and into the future.

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Tesla's Elon Musk Postpones India Trip, Aims to Visit This Year

Tesla's Elon Musk Postpones India Trip, Aims to Visit This Year

FILE PHOTO: Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk gestures, as he attends political festival Atreju organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d'Italia) right-wing party, in Rome, Italy, December 16, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo

By Aditi Shah, Aditya Kalra and Sarita Chaganti Singh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Elon Musk postponed a planned trip to India where he was to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing obligations at his Tesla automaker and saying he aimed to reschedule the visit for later this year.

"Unfortunately, very heavy Tesla obligations require that the visit to India be delayed, but I do very much look forward to visiting later this year," Musk posted on his X social media platform.

Reuters reported the postponement on Saturday, citing four people familiar with the matter. The trip was to have included the announcement of plans for the electric vehicle (EV) maker to enter the South Asian market, Reuters has reported.

The CEO and the prime minister are both at critical junctures.

Tesla could have used the India announcement to try to reassure investors after months of share-price declines and the news on April 15 that it would lay off more than 10% of its global workforce.

Musk is expected to face tough questions from analysts when Tesla announces quarterly results on Tuesday about falling sales, rising competition from Chinese EV makers and the fate of key future Tesla products.

Reuters reported on April 5 that Tesla had halted development of its long-awaited affordable EV, often called the Model 2. Musk posted that "Reuters is lying" after the report, without citing any inaccuracies. He has not spoken further about the model, leaving investors clamouring for clarity.

Rohan Patel, a Tesla public policy executive who, according to sources, was one of those leading the company's India entry plans, also resigned this week.

Musk would have arrived on Sunday, two days after the start of India's nation election, in which Modi is forecast to win a rare third term. Modi wants to highlight progress toward promises of making India a global manufacturing hub.

After Reuters reported Musk's India trip plans on April 10, he posted on X that he was "Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!"

In New Delhi, Musk was expected to announce an investment of $2 billion to $3 billion, mainly to build a factory in India, after the government announced a policy lowering high tariffs on imported cars if companies invest locally, Reuters has reported.

He was also expected to meet executives from several space startups in New Delhi. Musk is awaiting Indian government regulatory approvals to begin offering his Starlink satellite broadband services in the world's most populous country.

(This story has been refiled to say Reuters, not reporters, in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Aditi and Shah Aditya Kalra; Editing by William Mallard)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Krishna is the editor for politics and general news in India. He has also closely tracked India’s health industry and all things Bangladesh. He was a member of teams that won the Society of Publishers in Asia awards in 2017 and 2018 for Reuters coverage of the Bangladesh Bank heist and the Rohingya refugee crisis. He served as Malaysia bureau chief in 2019 and 2020 before returning home.

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