Narendra Modi has arrived in the US for a state visit that will underscore the deepening of US-India relations in recent years, secured by rising defence and technology co-operation and the shared goal of countering China.
Modi is due to lead an event at the UN in New York on Wednesday marking International Day of Yoga before travelling to Washington, where he will address a joint session of Congress on Thursday and attend a state banquet at the White House. On Friday, he will have lunch with secretary of state Antony Blinken and sign a number of defence and business deals.
The Indian prime minister got off to a quick start, meeting Tesla chief Elon Musk, who said Modi was “pushing” for “significant investments in India”. Musk said the electric-car manufacturer would “be in India . . . as soon as humanly possible”.
Modi has visited the US five times since he took office in 2014, according to the US state department, but his first fully fledged state visit marks a significant warming of relations between Washington and New Delhi, which were revived under former president George W Bush.
A push to strengthen ties has accelerated during the Biden administration, as it seeks to recruit allies and partners to reinforce economic security and curb China’s ambitions in advanced technology and defence.
“We expect this will be a historic visit,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “This will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century and this visit will showcase . . . the nature of this relationship.”
Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said the trip would mark a “milestone” in the bilateral relationship. “It’s a very significant visit . . . in which there is a genuine wide interest in the US.”
Sullivan said that while China policy was not the focus of Modi’s visit, Beijing’s increasingly assertive behaviour along its contested border with India, in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, would come up. “This visit is not about China but the question of China’s role in the military domain, the technology domain [and] economic domain will be on the agenda.”
Biden and Modi are expected to cement several co-operation agreements covering defence procurement, joint weapons production and the development of critical technologies. India is also expected to buy MQ-9 reconnaissance drones, but it was unclear when a deal would be signed.
“The visit marks one of the rare moments in US-India history where there is a real opportunity to take things to the next level. It is driven by strategic imperatives, not least China,” said Tanvi Madan at the Brookings Institution think-tank. “But it’s also about building future-oriented economic, technology and innovation ties and each side seeing the other as a more trusted partner than they do some others.”
One senior US defence official said the deals targeted this week, combined with increasing defence co-operation, represented a “transformational moment” in the relationship, as they would improve military interoperability, which Washington is seeking to prepare for possible hostilities with China.
“If these agreements are in place, it opens up possibilities, even if not guarantees, for what India and the US might be able to do with each other,” Madan said.
Sullivan dismissed suggestions that Washington was gambling on New Delhi’s readiness to intervene in a conflict, underscoring China’s sensitivity to India boosting defence co-operation with the US. “We’re not making a bet on some future war and whether we’re fighting alongside each other in that war,” he said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has brought into focus India’s trading and diplomatic relations with the world’s other large economies, including it taking advantage of western sanctions to buy discounted oil from Moscow.
India is also the world’s largest arms importer and Russia is its largest supplier. However, New Delhi is stepping up arms purchases and defence investment from the US and other countries as part of an “indigenisation” drive to shift defence production in-country and bolster domestic manufacturing.
One deal expected this week would permit General Electric to produce jet engines in India, giving New Delhi access to a critical technology it lacks and allowing it to retire more of its legacy Russian-made MiG-21 and other fighter jets. India is also seeking to narrow China’s lead in defence and critical technologies.
Indian officials described the visit as broader than past missions. Modi also met figures including Paul Romer, the former World Bank chief economist, think-tank representatives, and Grammy award-winning Indian-American singer Falguni Shah in New York. Modi is being accompanied by his powerful national security adviser Ajit Doval.
The trip follows visits by several top US officials, including Blinken and Sullivan, and defence secretary Lloyd Austin to India in recent months.
“Traditionally, Indians would do defence deals outside the summits,” said Indrani Bagchi, head of the Ananta Aspen Centre in New Delhi, noting that this week would probably be the last high-profile contact before both sides focused on next year’s national elections. “The fact that this is one of the big deliverables for the summit shows you how far we have come.”
The Indian diaspora has been a critical base of support for Modi, whose ruling Bharatiya Janata party is widely anticipated to win a third term in power. But he is expected to face protests from Indian Americans who are concerned about his party’s record on human rights.
A coalition of advocacy groups including Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council said it was planning a demonstration to “highlight concerns over Modi’s troubling track record on human rights, religious freedom, democratic backsliding and his crackdown on civil society critics, and the press”.
Sullivan said the White House welcome for Modi did not mean the US was being soft on human rights. He said it was important that the US raised the topic in a “spirit of mutual respect” rather than creating a “political football” by opining on India’s internal matters.
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