2023-09-08 20:55:40
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden met on Friday September 8 and touted the “strong and lasting partnership” between their two countries, while an agreement was announced ending their latest trade dispute.
The two leaders never leave each other, or almost: their bilateral meeting, on the eve of the G20 summit in New Delhi, follows a sumptuous state visit by Narendra Modi to the White House in June.
And the Indian Prime Minister said to himself in the joint communiqué on Friday, « impatient » to receive the American President again next year for a meeting of the Quad.
This diplomatic format dear to the White House, in the midst of an offensive in Asia to stand up to China, brings together India, the United States, Australia and Japan around security issues.
Offensive in Asia
During the meeting, the two leaders estimated, according to their press release, that the G20 summit would “Advancing Common Goals” economically, especially in “deeply reforming and strengthening the multilateral development banks”which is Joe Biden’s big goal in New Delhi.
And, just after their meeting, Washington announced that the two countries had reached an agreement to resolve their last outstanding dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO), which concerned the importation of agricultural products from the United States into India .
Customs duties will thus be reduced for frozen American turkeys and ducks, as well as blueberries and cranberries.
This agreement “represents an important milestone in the commercial relationship between the United States and India”said the representative of the White House in charge of trade (USTR), Katherine Tai, quoted in the press release, who had met in August on this subject with the Indian Minister of Trade and Industry, Piyush Goyal.
These announcements, she added, “highlight the strength of our bilateral partnership”while Washington and New Delhi had already put an end to several commercial disputes in June, on the occasion of the state visit to Washington of Narendra Modi.
Bilateral partnership
Joe Biden and Narendra Modi also said their support for an Indo-Pacific region « libre » et ” opened “which is the cautious formulation that the Biden administration always uses to denounce Chinese ambitions in the region.
The two men also promised to continue the projects launched during Narendra Modi’s state visit, in terms of technology, industry and defense.
Joe Biden also reiterated that he supported giving India a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
This meeting sparked controversy among the journalists accompanying the American president, and who were kept aside, which is unusual.
The Indian government broadcast images in slow motion and without sound of Joe Biden and Narendra Modi in deep conversation in the residence of the Hindu nationalist head of government.
“India remains a country under construction” in terms of democracy and human rights, said a White House adviser, Kurt Campbell, during a press briefing following the meeting.
“The key here is to maintain a respectful dialogue and confront certain challenges with a certain humility, given the problems we have experienced in our own country”did he declare.
In their press release, Joe Biden and Narendra Modi expressed their support for “common values of freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, pluralism. »
#India #latest #trade #dispute