U.S. President Joe Biden welcomes India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Wednesday for two days of talks that the White House sees as bolstering “one of the defining partnerships of our age,” despite ongoing concerns about human rights.
Washington wants India to be a strategic counterweight to China while Modi is seeking to raise the influence that his country, now the world’s most populous, has on the world stage.
On Thursday, Modi will be welcomed with a colorful arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn. Biden and Modi will hold Oval Office talks and attend a state dinner in Modi’s honor Thursday night.
No joint press conference was planned. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said work was still ongoing on this subject.
Modi has not backed the Ukraine war effort and India has been heavily reliant on Russian oil. Biden will bring up Russia and Ukraine ahead of the G20 summit later this year that will be held in India, Sullivan said.
“Across the board, I think you’ll see a combination of deep strategic discussions and practical progress, tangible progress in every single dimension of the relationship, all of it reflecting and reinforce the fact that this from our perspective will be one of the defining partnerships of our age,” Sullivan said.
Source: Reuters
