Will Narendra Modi realise his American dreams during his State Visit to the US?

By G Krishna Mohan Rao*

New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi emplaned for the United States on a four-day State Visit today, Indian diplomats described his visit as a likely game changer on the defence front as well as in the context of dealing with China.

Briefing newsmen here before he left for the US, India’s Foreign Secretary, Vijay Mohan Kawatra, said a road map for defence industrial cooperation is expected to be the key outcome of PM Modi’s visit.

Diplomatic sources said that besides strengthening the defence ties between the two, American investment as well as its business expansion in India in various sectors would be another major issue to be focused on. Tim Cook of Apple, during his recent visit to India, spoke of the huge ‘untapped market’ in India and the need for a people-to-people relationship. Similar views were expressed by many leading professionals and other stakeholders. Added to this, the recent Morgan Stanley report praised India on the economic front and added that India is all set to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027. 

For India, the threat lingers from China on the economic and political front and not to speak of the border dispute, more so, after the Galwan incident. Sources said, both the leaders were keen to send a strong political message to China, not just symbolism. China being the second largest economy in the world is throwing many challenges to the US on several fronts. So both Modi and Biden are expected to focus on major irritants emanating from China while taking practical elements into consideration. As it is, Pakistan doesn’t seem a threat to India in the geopolitical context or even otherwise, sources said. 

The other key component of Modi’s visit would be strong trade and investment partnerships. The US views India as over-regulated and not friendly to foreign business. There is strong demand from American business houses that India be more business-friendly and give up its protectionist policies. Today, the average American businessman feels that it is easy to do business in China than in India. If one goes by the World Bank’s index of ease of doing business, India is far behind many developing countries.

The technology component, which interfaces with many other domains— telecom, space, manufacturing and investment, would be other crucial aspects of his visit, besides Education and Health. At present, 2,00,000 Indian students are engaged in various universities in the US. Two-thirds of them are in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The student linkage is seen as an important one, but under the new education policy of India, now the forward movement is going to be in establishing campus-to-campus relations, intertwining of degrees and joint research work, Kawatra said.

Sources said Modi’s visit is expected to deepen the ties between the two largest democracies and his proposed three meetings with the United States President Joe Biden are expected to shape a “new reality”.

Before his departure, Modi stated: “I am travelling to the United States of America on a State Visit at the invitation of President Joseph Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden. This special invitation is a reflection of the vigour and vitality of the partnership between our democracies.”

In both the US as well as Indian camps, there is a mood of optimism with the US Ambassador to India describing Modi’s visit as the “world’s most critical relationship”. While the London based —The Economist—on its latest cover described the Indo -US relations as the world’s most important transaction, a senior Indian diplomat here said “there is a very genuine and widespread interest” on both sides to use the visit to take the relationship to the next level on the lines of US-Britain and US-Israel.

During his visit, the Prime Minister, in addition to the official engagements, will meet economists, Nobel laureates, scientists, entrepreneurs, scholars, academicians, health sector experts and artists. He will be meeting Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, who also owns Twitter. Musk has been vocal about the expansion of Tesla in India if things work. The area of critical and emerging technologies, related to Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence, will be other focused areas and priorities.

In an interview today with Wall Street Journal, Modi spoke about the importance of staying inter-connected and interdependent in supply chain management. He indicated to the newspaper that India’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council should be decided by the entire world. Obviously, the membership will also lead to India’s admission into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. He also called for an evaluation of the current membership of the Security Council. 

Both Biden and Modi are expected to discuss, besides issues of mutual concern and interest in the region as well as global, the Russian-Ukraine war, the situation in the Indonesia-pacific region, terrorism threats as well as ways to combat cyber security threats and China’s belligerence among others.

After his arrival in New York, Modi will lead the 9th International Yoga Day celebrations at the UN headquarters on June 21, 2023. He will thereafter travel to Washington DC, where he will receive a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22 and meet President Biden to continue their high-level dialogue. President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will also host a state dinner in honour of PM Modi the same evening. Among those at the dinner include, American CEOs —Satya Nadella from Microsoft, Sunder Pichai from Google, and Raj Subramanian from FedEx. Several eminent Indian American serving in the Biden administration like Neera Tanden, Dr Vivek Murthy and Rahul Gupta are also expected to be attending the State Dinner.

At the invitation of Congressional leaders, including the Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, PM Modi will address a joint sitting of the US Congress on June 22. On June 23, he will be jointly hosted at a luncheon by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. Modi will address the Indian diaspora, an invitation-only gathering of diaspora leaders from across the country at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Centre in Washington on June 23.

The Indian diaspora including the business fraternity as well as US Multinationals seem quite optimistic about Modi’s visit. They feel that the world’s most powerful democracy and largest democracy must forge a natural alliance as they share many similarities—openness, attitudes, pluralism and diversification.

Both sides are optimistic that after the end of the Cold War, the ‘real friendship’ between India and US has just begun. Modi, on his part, said, “I am confident that my visit to the US will reinforce our ties based on shared values of democracy, diversity and freedom. Together we stand stronger in meeting the shared global challenges”.

Modi will travel to Cairo from Washington D.C. at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and he said he was “excited to pay a State Visit to a close and friendly country for the first time”. He recalled that President Sisi was the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations this year. 

*Senior journalist