US Vice President Joe Biden, who arrives in New Delhi on Monday on what would be the first India visit by an American veep in decades, sees India as “a force for security and growth” in the region at a time when the Obama administration is committed to rebalance its Asia-Pacific policy.
Officials said on Friday that Biden will call on President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj as part of the US push for deepening economic and commercial relations. Coming close on the heels of the US visit by Unions Ministers P Chidambaram and Anand Sharma, after last month’s India visit by Secretary of State John Kerry, the Biden trip is also seen as preparatory to the Prime Minister’s official visit to the US, expected in September.
Biden will also visit Mumbai, where his engagements include an address at the Bombay Stock Exchange. In a speech outlining the US’s Asia-Pacific policy at Washington’s Centre for American Progress, Biden spoke of the breadth and scope of the rebalance, remarking: “Twenty, even 10 years ago, some might have suggested India be left out of discussions about the Asia-Pacific.”
He spoke of the phenomenal growth of US-India ties, resulting in increased economic and commercial engagement. “In the last 13 years, we’ve increased fivefold our bilateral trade, reaching nearly $100 billion,” he said, adding there is no reason why it cannot grow five-fold or more, if only the two countries made the right choices.
While reflecting on India’s announcement this week to relax caps on foreign direct investment in certain sectors, Biden said: “We still have a lot of work to do on a wide range of issues, including the civil nuclear cooperation, a bilateral investment treaty, policies protecting innovation. There’s a lot of work to do. But we believe doing -- going with an open mind and listening, as well as making our case, we believe it can be done.” He also flagged climate change as another important element of the dialogue with India. “One of the reasons why President Obama called our relationship with India “a defining partnership of the century ahead” is that India is increasingly looking east as a force for security and growth in Southeast Asia and beyond,” Biden said, noting: “To us that’s welcome news. We encourage it. We welcome India’s engagement in the region, and we welcome its efforts to develop new trade and transportation links by land and by sea in the area.”
The US, he said, wants to help create 21st century “rules of the road” to help Asian nations integrate, achieve security and prosper. “Now we want to hasten the emergence of an Asian-Pacific order that delivers security and prosperity for all the nations involved,” he said, noting that many nations have experienced rapid economic transformation that has fundamentally created a new dynamic, rising ambitions and rising tensions. But the rules and norms that can predict to deal with both those changes, the order needed, remained incomplete, he said. To spark new growth, he made the case for fewer protectionist barriers, assurance of intellectual property protection to reward innovation and “new commitments to make sure everyone plays by the same rules because that’s what attracts investment and jobs”.