2023-06-21 21:42:00
[The Epoch Times, June 22, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Zhang Ting) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a state visit to the United States from June 21 to 24. President Biden will roll out the red carpet and receive Modi with the highest diplomatic courtesy, including a grand welcome ceremony and state banquet arrangements. Before Modi’s visit, he praised the unprecedented level of mutual trust between India and the United States.
Modi has made several visits to the United States since becoming India’s prime minister in 2014, but this is his first official state visit. Why did Biden send such a high-level invitation to Modi? The analysis believes that the reason is that India is becoming more and more strategic to the United States.
Although U.S. officials say that the Indian Prime Minister’s visit has nothing to do with confronting the CCP or sending a message to Beijing, the “Wall Street Journal” said that the Biden administration’s efforts to win over India on issues such as defense and technology are aimed at curbing the growing CCP. Growing military and economic influence. And now, Biden welcomes Modi with the highest diplomatic courtesy, bringing India closer to the United States.
Modi was also invited to address the US Congress during this visit. He will then become the third world leader to address Congress twice.
Confrontation with the CCP is the fundamental driving force of US-India cooperation
India’s growing economic and geopolitical prominence as the world’s most populous country and the world’s fifth-largest economy makes it a country that a Biden administration cannot ignore. However, the “Guardian” said that most experts believe that the goal of confronting the CCP is the fundamental driving force behind the deepening of US-India relations.
U.S.-China relations are deteriorating. The two parties in the U.S. Congress agree that India is an important geopolitical and even economic counterweight to the CCP’s dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Matt Kroenig, vice president of the Atlantic Council, as saying: “India is probably the most important country for confronting China, which is America’s top priority.”
Kroenig said there are important strategic reasons for working with India.
After Biden took office, he strengthened contacts among members of the “Quadruple Security Dialogue” (Quad). The Quad includes the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, and one of its purposes is to encircle the CCP geographically.
India is a key ally in this anti-communist club. India is the only country that has had an open conflict with China in the past few decades. Since June 2020, border conflicts between China and India have broken out many times, and there have even been casualties, which has caused the relationship between the two countries to continue to deteriorate. The Indian Border Police’s assessment report on the security situation in the disputed areas along the India-China border believes that as the Chinese Communist Party builds more and more military infrastructure there, the risk of armed conflict between the armies of the two countries in the disputed areas will only increase.
The Guardian reported that Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: “Washington wants to establish an expanded deterrence framework to try to contain China (the CCP).” Geographically, strategically and economically, India has become a key part of this framework.”
Given that India’s technological progress lags behind China’s, Modi welcomes the new willingness of the United States to share its advanced technological and cyber resources. Modi’s visit to the United States will complete a landmark deal: let the US General Electric Company produce jet fighter engines in India to power Indian military aircraft. The Guardian said that this will be the first time that the US and India have conducted such military technical cooperation, sending a clear message to the CCP.
This geopolitical alliance aimed at countering China has brought unprecedented levels of security and defense cooperation between the United States and India. U.S.-India intelligence sharing and joint military exercises have increased in the Himalayan region near the Chinese border.
India will also gain access to key U.S. technologies that the U.S. rarely shares with non-allies, Archyde.com said.
With tensions between the U.S. and China, a U.S. official said Biden wants U.S. companies to reduce the risk of doing business in China while better integrating the U.S. economy with that of India. Apple is gradually shifting production from China to India. During Modi’s visit to the US, he will also meet with US business executives so that they can bring more investment to India.
Biden administration officials described the visit as a seminal moment between the US and India, and an opportunity for the US to seize India’s “untapped” economic potential.
U.S. officials say Modi’s visit will result in a wide range of new deals on defense, technology and climate. The U.S. and India are already examining ways to boost technology development in India as the U.S. strives to shift key supply chains away from China.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said on Tuesday (June 20): “We hope this will reflect the fact that the United States and India have a shared relationship between our two countries and our two peoples. A natural partnership that will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century.”
Trade between the US and India will hit a record $191 billion in 2022, making the US India’s largest trading partner.
In a statement ahead of Modi’s visit, US officials lavished praise on US-India relations, praising the “significant defense partnership” and describing it as a “unique link between the oldest and largest democracies in the world”. “This special invitation (by the Biden administration) reflects the vigor and vitality of the partnership among our democracies,” Modi said in a statement before his departure.
Strengthen defense cooperation with India to reduce dependence on Russia
Western countries have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. India, because of its historical relationship with Russia (nearly 80% of India’s defense and weapons are provided by Russia), has not joined the Western sanctions, but continues to buy oil from Russia. Despite initial resistance from Washington, the Guardian said analysts agreed that the Biden administration has now accepted India’s deep-rooted relationship with Russia. Some believe that this has even accelerated the defense cooperation between the United States and India to help India reduce its dependence on Russia.
Modi’s trip to the US is expected to seal a multibillion-dollar deal for India to buy Predator drones from the US to boost surveillance in the Indian Ocean and border areas with China.
With less than a year to go until India’s next general election, the U.S. president has given Modi an unprecedented high-level reception, which may boost Modi’s prestige among domestic voters. Modi, who is expected to win a third term, owes his popularity in part to voters seeing him as making India a respected player on the world stage. And now the recognition of Modi by the United States, a major Western power, may add points to his campaign.
The Guardian quoted Tanvi Madan, director of the India Program at the Brookings Institution in Washington, as saying that since independence, India has always considered itself an international power, but felt that it had not received the recognition or recognition it deserved. Role. Modi seems to think that the recognition from the US will not generate resistance at home, but rather an optimism that “this is India’s moment”.
Of course, Modi’s visit is also facing challenges in the United States. He has been criticized for human rights issues in India. Amnesty International called on Biden to confront India over the deterioration of human rights ahead of Modi’s visit to the US.
Avinash Paliwal, associate professor of international relations at SOAS, University of London, said the United States can deal with quasi-democracies or non-democracies, so he does not believe that India’s democratic decline will destabilize the top levels of both governments. The close contact between them will not prevent them from uniting to solve the China problem.
Responsible editor: Lin Yan#
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