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WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed a “defining partnership” with India as he rolled out the pink carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing main protection and expertise offers as Washington bets huge on New Delhi as a counterweight to China. Modi is being feted with the pomp of a state go to, solely the third of Biden’s presidency, in a calculated present of full-throated US assist — regardless of quiet unease over India’s refusal to interrupt with Russia and what rights teams see as rising authoritarianism by the Hindu nationalist chief.
With round 7,000 Indian-Individuals gathered on the White Home’s South Garden to cheer him on, Modi, sporting a flowing white kurta with a sky-blue jacket, walked a pink carpet to a army salute as Biden welcomed him. “I’ve lengthy believed that the connection between the US and India will likely be one of the defining relationships of the twenty first century,” Biden stated. “The challenges and alternatives going through the world on this century require that India and america work and lead collectively,” he stated.
Modi, India’s strongest prime minister in many years, stated that the 2 nations “are dedicated to work collectively for the worldwide good and for international peace, stability and prosperity”. “Our robust strategic partnership is a transparent proof of the ability of democracy,” stated Modi, who not like most of India’s post-independence leaders spoke Hindi fairly than English on the worldwide stage. Modi will later tackle a joint session of Congress and return to the White Home for a gala dinner, with First Girl Jill Biden tapping a star Californian plant-based chef, Nina Curtis, to prepare dinner for the strictly vegetarian prime minister.
The White Home stated the 2 leaders will take questions from the press, whereas stopping in need of calling the occasion a press convention. Modi has practically all the time averted unscripted interactions with reporters throughout his 9 years in workplace. In one of many greatest agreements of the go to, described by a US official as “trailblazing”, america signed off on a expertise switch for engines as India begins producing homegrown fighter jets. Common Electrical can have the inexperienced gentle to supply its F414 engines collectively with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics.
A US official stated India would additionally purchase MQ-9B SeaGuardians, high-precision armed drones. India in 2019 broke precedent with an airstrike in Pakistani territory in opposition to an alleged extremist camp. Washington hopes a tighter protection relationship will assist wean India off Russia, New Delhi’s major army provider throughout the Chilly Conflict. India has refused to hitch Western efforts to isolate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and as an alternative has seized on the disaster to purchase discounted Russian oil. In a single long-running level of rivalry, India has been angered by US gross sales of F-16 fighter jets to its historic rival Pakistan.
In one other settlement, US chip big Micron will make investments $800 million in a semiconductor meeting and testing plant in India, which is predicted to succeed in $2.75 billion after contributions from New Delhi. A US official stated the plant would assist diversify provide chains of superior semiconductors, as Biden leads a concerted effort to disclaim exports of top-end chips to China. Micron nonetheless additionally lately introduced a $600 million funding in a manufacturing unit in China. India, a rising energy in house, additionally agreed throughout Modi’s go to to hitch the Artemis Accords, a US-led multinational effort to place a human again on the Moon by 2025. As a part of the cooperation, India’s house program will work with NASA on a joint mission to the Worldwide Area Station subsequent yr, the White Home stated.
America has been looking for a more in-depth relationship with India because the late Nineteen Nineties, seeing the billion-plus democracy as like-minded. However Modi has additionally confronted rising criticism for remedy of spiritual minorities, the opposition and impartial media, with the State Division pointing to police and vigilante violence in opposition to Muslims and Christians. Biden touched flippantly on considerations, telling Modi that spiritual pluralism was amongst “core ideas” for each america and India “whilst they’ve confronted challenges all through every of our nations’ histories”. Modi replied that each nations “take satisfaction of their range.”
Three outstanding leftwing Democrats together with Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and two Muslims, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, stated they’d boycott Modi’s speech to Congress. Saying the US Congress shouldn’t invite leaders with “deeply troubling human rights data”, Ocasio-Cortez stated she would keep away to point out assist for “pluralism, tolerance and freedom of the press.” Dozens of different Democrats in a letter urged Biden to lift considerations “in an sincere and forthright method”, though they stopped in need of boycotting and backed nearer ties with India. – AFP
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