President Joe Biden and congressional leaders rolled out the red carpet for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, as the right-wing Hindu nationalist leader arrived for an official state visit to the United States. Modi will address a joint session of Congress and will be feted at a White House state dinner — a diplomatic honor usually reserved for close allies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden marked what they have described as a new stage in the India-U.S. relationship, as Mr. Modi was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the White House’s South Lawn by Mr. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on a drizzly Thursday morning . The visit was not just pomp and ceremony — the two sides announced a long list of deliverables spanning defence, critical and emerging technology, health, energy and mobility. Mr. Biden characterised this as a “next generation partnership” between the two countries.
During this Washington visit by PM Modi, concerns were raised about Mr. Modi’s past, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, as well as concerns about democratic backsliding in India, today. Over 70 lawmakers wrote to Mr. Biden asking him to raise democratic norms and human rights during his discussions with Mr. Modi. A handful of lawmakers announced they would boycott Mr. Modi’s address to the U.S. Congress. Former President Barack Obama, who is a close friend of Mr. Biden, also weighed in, appealing to Mr. how to recover misplaced files on an ipad Modi to protect ethnic minorities in India. As democracies, we can better tap into the full talent of all of our people and attract investments… with our greatest export being the power of our example: equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious, pluralism and diversity of our people,” Mr. Biden said in his welcome speech on the South Lawn of the White House. Both the leaders delivered remarks after their bilateral meeting and Mr. Modi answered two questions — one on democracy in India from the American press corps and another on climate change from the Indian press corps. The Prime Minister normally does not have two-way press interactions on foreign visits. During this visit India will, if briefly, be front-page news in the United States.
Since President Clinton ended a chill in U.S.-India relations almost 25 years ago,
successive American and Indian administrations across political parties have worked to strengthen ties. Despite careful nurturing by Washington over the years, many aspects of U.S. ties with India remain challenging. Bilateral trade has grown tenfold since 2000, to $191 billion in 2022, and India became the ninth-largest US trading partner in 2021. But longstanding economic gripes persist, meriting 13 pages in the 2023 Foreign Trade Barriers report from the U.S. Trade Representative. Multilaterally, India’s role in the fast-consolidating “Quad” consultation (comprised of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan) has brought shared purpose to Washington and New Delhi, both of which harbor concerns about China. But New Delhi also champions alternative non-Western groupings like the BRICS, and it remains outside bodies central to U.S. diplomacy like the U.N. Security Council and the G7.
U.S.-India cooperation spans defense, global health, sustainable development, climate, and technology, among other things. But deep differences remain, including concerns in Washington about India’s democratic backsliding under Modi, and India’s failure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In other words, the U.S.-India relationship has been transformed over the past quarter-century, but that transformation has not delivered a partnership or alignment similar to the closest U.S. alliances.
India is not a U.S. ally, and has not wanted to become one. To see relations with rising power India as on a pathway that culminates in a relationship like that the United States enjoys with Japan or the United Kingdom creates expectations that will not be met. Indian leaders across parties and over decades have long prioritized foreign policy independence as a central feature of India’s approach to the world. Prime Minister Modi represents a break with India’s past, most notably in his emphasis on India’s Hindu, rather than syncretic and secular, cultural heritage. But his approach to the United States remains consistent with the history of his country’s foreign policy independence. New Delhi has carefully managed its relationships with Saudi Arabia as well as Iran; with Israel as well as the Palestinian Territories; with the United States as well as Russia. India’s G20 presidency this year encapsulates this orientation, with its Sanskritic theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” and its twin efforts to lead the forum for the world’s 20 largest economies while self-consciously presenting itself as the “Voice of the Global South.” In the United States, the mental model for positive international cooperation defaults to seeing “ally” as the ultimate endpoint. For India, that suggests a curtailment of independence. And with India, even as cooperation becomes more extensive than ever in the past, consequential differences remain.
The array of special relationships and alliances nurtured by the United States over decades are still in place, but many of these are now inflected by divergences with Washington. Take Turkey, or France, or Egypt, Pakistan, or Brazil. These U.S. allies do not always see their alliance relationship with Washington as barriers to taking decisions that contradict U.S. preferences. Indeed, President Emmanuel Macron too invokes “strategic autonomy. India’s ambivalence offers a lens onto the world. Washington is likely to encounter on a growing scale. In this world of more diffused power—a world with more diverse actors taking more distinctive foreign policy steps—partnerships and even alliances marked by substantial disagreements might be the new normal. In fact, managing ambivalence may be the central skill for American foreign policy in the years ahead.
Laser-focused on countering China, US President Joe Biden has embraced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he has few other world leaders, casting aside any concerns about the Hindu nationalist’s authoritarian streak. While ending his four-day US visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is an astute politician, left behind a gift for his host, President Joe Biden: a resounding endorsement. Ahead 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. In America 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.” 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.” The White House, in the meantime, has done its own balancing act. recover bak file 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.
