India and the US on Friday reviewed the entire gamut of their robust bilateral ties during talks here between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden. The two sides reaffirmed their resolve to further strengthen the relations. Prime Minister Modi later hosted a private dinner for President Biden who arrived earlier in the day to take part in the two-day G20 summit beginning Saturday.
Prime Minister Modi took to social media after the talks and said “Happy to have welcomed @POTUS @JoeBiden to 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. Our meeting was very productive. We were able to discuss numerous topics which will further economic and people-to-people linkages between India and USA." He also said "The friendship between our nations will continue to play a great role in furthering global good," he adds. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi will hold 15 bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit in the next three days. On Friday, he also held parleys with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth.
On Saturday, Modi will hold bilateral talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, German Chancellor and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni . Modi will have a luncheon meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday besides a pull aside with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
As regards his talks with President Biden, the two leaders reportedly reviewed the progress of proposed deal to jointly manufacture fighter jet engines in India, nuclear technology, purchase of armed MQ-9B drones and trade issues. High technology cooperation under the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) was also reviewed following up on the announcements from Prime Minister Modi’s state visit to Washington in June, sources said.
Incidentally, reports suggest India may invite Quad leaders as chief guests for Republic Day parade next year. The Quad combine includes India, Japan, US and Australia.
The two leaders also discussed the situation in Ukraine, US-China relations, as well as India-China relations and the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The India-U.S. nuclear deal and civil nuclear liability agreement was also discussed. Modi and Biden also discussed trade issues as the US has dropped most World Trade Organisation(WTO)cases against India.
Meanwhile, the Indian defence ministry(MOD) is reportedly all set to issue a Letter of Request (LoR) for the purchase of 31 General Atomic MQ-9B armed drones, 15 for the Navy and eight each for the Army and Air Force. The cost of the proposed deal is estimated at $3,072 million and the deal will happen through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales route.
Based on the LOR, the U.S. Government and MoD will finalise the Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) where details of equipment and terms of the procurement would be negotiated and finalised.
Eight years since the civil nuclear deal which brought India into the global civil nuclear energy fold, cooperation between the two countries remains stuck over U.S. concerns on India’s nuclear liability law. Keeping this in mind, the two countries recently announced cooperation on Small Modular Reactors.
During Modi’s visit to the U.S. in June, General Electric (GE) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) signed a memorandum of understanding to license manufacture the jet engine in India which has been chosen to power India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)-MK2.
The jet engine deal would see 80% technology transfer for manufacturing including some critical technologies by GE to HAL and the first engine is expected to be ready three years after the contract conclusion. In August, the proposal to license manufacture the General Electric F-414 jet engine cleared the U.S. Congress as there were no objections raised. Officials explained that since Congress has been already notified, which happened end July, and since there have been no objections inside 30 days, the deal is considered cleared.