A New Direction to India-US Relations: Modi Meets Biden

Ah yes, it’s that time of the decade, when the two most famous senior citizens within the political world meet, i.e, U.S president Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On September 25th, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finished writing another chapter within a subtle story playing out within our eyes, a story that no one is talking about as much as they should, that is, the story of the ever-growing India-US alliance. How touching.

“Over the last few days, I have had productive bilateral and multilateral engagements, interaction with CEOs, and the UN address. I am confident the India-US relationship will grow even stronger in the years to come. Our rich people-to-people linkages are among our strongest assets.” – Narendra Modi via Twitter

The first-ever in-person Quadrilateral Security Dialogue summit, or QUAD summit, was held on the 24th of September 2021. 

For Modi, his travel to the United States included bilateral talks between US President Joe Biden, multilateral meetings between other QUAD leaders, namely Australia, Japan, and the US, some discussions with US vice-president Kamala Harris and the CEO’s of some international companies, and conclusively, his address at the UNGA.

But what exactly occurred during these discussions, and what does it imply towards the future relationship between the United States and India?

Well first we need to truly attempt to grasp the sophistication of this story, to elaborate, it’s a story of two countries, of two countries that are very different, but yet hold similar views on various key subjects, a story that uses these views as a rationale to form an alliance between themselves, an alliance, that will allow them to fulfill the various narratives they wish to push forth in regards to these views. 

Now, let’s get to the subjects discussed during these talks.

The first, and most expected one, was the Covid-19 and vaccine talk.

“Our vaccine initiative is on track to produce an additional 1 billion doses of vaccine in India to boost global supply” – US President Joe Biden

During his talks with the world leaders and American CEO’s, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to push forth a rather attractive narrative towards foreign investors in the vaccine department of India, he stated that India welcomed foreign vaccine manufacturers and that manufacturing company should look to invest more in the Indian market, he also thanked the United States for her help towards India in battling the second wave of covid-19 which it faced, calling the US a “true friend”.

These vaccine talks also extended towards the United States Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I welcome India’s announcement that it will soon be able to resume vaccine exports. It is particular note and admiration that India is currently vaccinating approximately 10 million people a day as of today,” – US Vice President Kamala Harris

So clearly, and rather expectedly, India is looking towards improving US investment in the vaccine sector although another, more eccentric subject India wishes to improve ties with the US on, is that of counter-terrorism and military security.

At first one might just shrug at this prospect but if one looks at it from a broader perspective, it’s a perfectly reasonable prospect. Two countries, both looking towards alleviating Islamist-terrorism, and prominent Islamist Countries that indirectly support this terrorism, in addition to both countries also having increasing Chinese tensions within their political sphere. Fits into the narrative, doesn’t it?

This prospect was broadened during the discussions that took place during these meetings, the most prominent ones, of course, being those of the recent flow of events in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in fact, Pakistan’s involvement in the newly terrorist-run state was also a major topic of discussion outside the Bilateral meeting, during the QUAD summit, and UNGA assembly held later.

These discussions once again were also held between Modi and Kamala Harris, where they took a step forward in improving the India-US military ties. Vice president Kamala was keen on highlighting the important role of Pakistan in the last few decades, in promoting terrorism, with emphasis on the recent Afghanistan occurrences.

These improvements in Indian-US military and diplomatic ties could already be seen taking place a short while later during the UNGA assembly, where president Joe Biden asserted his “unwavering commitment” to India as a paramount defense partner.

And oh yes, the UNGA definitely did see some of this “unwavering commitment” take place between the two countries on multiple instances that day.

During that session of the UNGA, India and the US both condemned cross border terrorism, they both called out the Taliban on its human rights violation and terrorism, the US spoke on improving cooperation in regards to aviation security, terrorist screening, information security, joint capacity buildings, e.t.c between both countries, and finally, amongst many other things, both the nations also took a firm stance against the Myanmar coup that recently occurred, calling for a release of political hostages and a re-establishment of democracy.

The icing on the cake, being US President Joe Biden’s reiteration of the US’s support for India’s permanent membership on a reformed United Nations Security Council and its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

But besides this extravaganza of military cooperation, one interesting aspect was Modi’s interaction with five top American CEOs of monster corporations. It is imminent that the Indian economy was hit negatively during the pandemic, so this was a window of opportunity for Modi in attracting foreign investors to the country.

Although the rather interesting part of these interactions was not Modi’s excessive capitalization, on mentioning the juicy prospect of capitalizing on the newly implemented PLI scheme, but rather on drone talks.

Three of the five CEOs he met, were primarily encouraged by him to invest in the drone sector of India, the companies included the likes of general atomics, Qualcomm, and even Blackstone, with two of them actually being drone manufacturers themselves.

His motive behind this is particularly unknown.

The CEOs of the two other companies he met were Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) and Mark R Widman (First Solar). Modi and R Widman had talks regarding the mass implementation of solar panels across India and the motive behind this is rather clear, considering Modi emphasized during his talks with Kamala Harris, India’s push for increasing renewable energy, the recently launched National Hydrogen Mission, and the talks of climate change during the QUAD summit and UNGA.

With Mark R Widman on the other hand, Modi encouraged Adobe to invest in the education sector, stating the need in digitizing and animating modern-day Indian education, reiterating the importance of improving India’s education system and how he looked forward to providing unique opportunities and modernizing the Youth’s education. Once again the motive behind this is rather clear, considering India’s recent reforms in the education sector.

Speaking of which, while the protests towards the government’s recent educational reforms might be upsetting him, one thing that certainly isn’t upsetting him is the swarm of “enthusiasts” that met him outside his hotel room.

So what does this mean now looking forward?

These are two countries that have been trying to achieve very similar goals for quite some time, an alliance or friendship, as Dear Modi would put it, seems much more impactful than what one might think.

In fact, this alliance could very well likely be the right step moving forward, in giving India that one push, that one push to certify its recognition as a global superpower.