Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The first in-person meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the new US President Joe Biden is likely during the Group-7 Summit, scheduled to be held at Cornwall in the United Kingdom from June 11 to 13.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had recently invited Modi to the 46th Summit, in which Australia and South Korea have also been invited as “guest countries”. Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, Johnson had recently canceled his India visit as the chief guest in the Republic Day Parade in New Delhi, on January 26.
Earlier, Modi had participated in the 45th G-7 Summit at Biarritz at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron in July 2019.
The Modi-Biden meeting is expected to take forward the bilateral relations to the next level.
Indications to this came from the White House on Thursday when a spokesman said that President Biden “respects and values” the “long, bipartisan, successful” relationship between leaders of the United States and India and looks forward to continuing it.
Biden and Modi have spoken at least once since the American leader’s election last November, and could again soon as the 46th US President begins calling up counterparts in allied and partner countries. President Biden will start making these calls on Friday, with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau being the first.
“President Biden, who of course has visited India many times, respects and values the long, bipartisan, successful relationship between leaders in India and the United States. He looks forward to a continuation of that,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in response to a question at the daily news briefing on Thursday, a day after Biden took oath as the new President.
As additional proof of President Biden’s continuing support for the bilateral relationship, the spokesman referred to Vice-President Kamala Harris. “Obviously, he selected — and yesterday, she was sworn in — the first Indian-American to serve as Vice-President, certainly a historic moment for all of us in this country, but a further, you know, cementing of the importance of our relationship.”
Kamala’s mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, had migrated to the US from Chennai, India, and her father, Donald Harris, from Jamaica.
Soon after President Biden’s swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, Modi had posted tweets congratulating him and committing to work with him. “My warmest congratulations to Joe Biden on his assumption of office as the President of the United States of America. I look forward to working with him to strengthen the India-US strategic partnership,” he tweeted.
In another, he said, “We stand united and resilient in addressing common challenges and advancing global peace and security”. And in a third post, he said, “The India-US partnership is based on shared values. We have a substantial and multifaceted bilateral agenda, growing economic engagement, and vibrant people-to-people linkages. Committed to working with President @JoeBiden to take the India-US partnership to even greater heights.”
In 2014, Biden, who was the US Vice-President then, had hosted a lunch for Modi at the state department. The visiting PM, who was observing Navratri fasts at the time, skipped the meal part of the event, as he had at the dinner hosted for him and his team by President Barack Obama at the White House.
As Vice-President, Joe Biden had visited India in July 2013, in preparation for then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s upcoming US visit. Biden had also mentioned that some of his relatives were Indian citizens, living in Mumbai and other places.
Incidentally, Dr. Singh was President Obama’s first state guest in 2009.