India, US vow to boost relations

The relationship between India and the US is destined to be stronger, closer, and tighter, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, as the two leaders sat down for their first face-to-face meeting.

Modi arrived in the US on Thursday on a three-day official visit that will also see him attend the first in-person summit of Quad leaders in Washington later on Friday. Quad comprises India, the US, Japan and Australia and aims to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific amid heightened tension between China and its neighbours.

In his opening remarks, Biden said he had long believed that “the US-India relationship can help us solve global challenges".

In a Twitter post after the meeting, Modi said he “had an outstanding meeting with @POTUS @JoeBiden. His leadership on critical global issues is commendable. We discussed how India and the US will further scale-up cooperation in different spheres and work together to overcome key challenges like covid-19 and climate change."

The two have previously met virtually thrice before and spoken over the phone several times.

“I look forward to strengthening the deep ties between our two nations, working to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific, and tackling everything from covid-19 to climate change," Biden said.

In his opening remarks, Modi described Friday’s summit between the two leaders as important.

“We are meeting at the start of the third decade of this century. Your leadership will certainly play an important role in how this decade is shaped. The seeds have been sown for an even stronger friendship between India and the US," Modi told Biden, according to a transcript of the talks made available by the US embassy.

“Mr. President, between India and the US, trade will continue to assume importance, and we find that the trade between our two countries is actually complementary. I find that the area of trade during this decade, that is also going to be tremendously important," Modi added.

A senior US administration official on Thursday told reporters that the first Modi-Biden “in-person meeting…will cover a number of priority issues that India is really front and centre of, including pandemic response, their response to climate change."

The two leaders will talk about “technology issues, economic cooperation and trade, as well as Afghanistan and new areas of cooperation that both governments have been discussing," the official said, according to a transcript on the White House website.

Afghanistan, terrorism emanating from Pakistan, climate change, closer economic and defence collaboration were all on the agenda for talks between the two leaders, officials from the Indian side said earlier this week. New Delhi has been warily eyeing the Pakistan-backed Taliban administration in Afghanistan. India has been seeking support for its position that the territory of Afghanistan not be used to foment terrorism against it and would like the international community, including the US, to ensure this. The Taliban took over Kabul on 15 August, ahead of a complete US pullout on 31 August after a two-decade-long stay in Afghanistan.

Later in the day, Modi and Biden sat down with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for the first in-person Quad summit.

A second US administration official said the Quad was “an informal gathering of leading democracies in the Indo-Pacific" region.

The aim of the in-person meeting that was taking place after a virtual meeting in March was “to ensure we are working together to build better lines of communication and strengthening cooperation and habits of cooperation among us," the official said.

Key outcomes expected from the Quad meeting included “a supply-chain initiative" besides cooperation in creating infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the second US administration official said.

“The effort is really a detailed joint initiative to map overall capacity; identify, you know, respective vulnerabilities; and to take critical steps to bolster supply chain security, particularly for semiconductors and all their vital components," the second official said. “I think the goal is to help ensure Quad partners help take their steps to support at least a somewhat diverse and competitive market that produces secure, critical technologies that are essential for digital economies globally," the second official said.

An announcement on 5G deployment and diversification effort in a bid to support “the critical role of Quad governments in fostering and promoting a diverse, resilient, secure telecommunications ecosystem," were among the other outcomes expected, the second official said.