Biden and Modi to unveil new science and defence cooperation between US and India

Prominent Democrats still plan to boycott Indian prime minister’s speech to Congress on Thursday

President Joe Biden and Narendra Modi on Thursday will use the Indian prime minister’s state visit to mark deepening defence and technological ties between their respective nations, even as many members of Mr Biden’s own party plan to snub the controversial Indian leader at a planned address to the US Congress.

Mr Modi, who arrived in the US on Wednesday and visited the National Science Foundation with First Lady Jill Biden before the Bidens hosted him for a private dinner at the White House, has visited Washington before during his near-decade as the leader of the world’s largest democracy, a nine-year period that has been marked by increasing attacks on free speech and religious freedom under the rule of his Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Indian prime minister was actually banned from the United States in the years prior to becoming his country’s head of government. In 2005, the US State Department denied him permission to enter the country due to his role in deadly riots during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat. The ban on his entry into the US, which was imposed under the International Religious Freedom Act, was not lifted until he became prime minister in 2014.

Yet nearly 10 years later, the Biden administration appears to be ready to gloss over concerns about democratic backsliding, increasing attacks on India’s Muslim minority, and growing restrictions on press freedom in favour of highlighting the strong ties between the two countries.

A senior administration official who briefed reporters on plans for the state visit said it will “affirm the deep and close partnership between the United States and India and the warm bonds of family and friendship that link Americans and Indians together” and “strengthen our two countries shared commitment to free, open, prosperous and secure Indo Pacific and our shared resolve to elevate our Strategic Technology Partnership, including in defence, clean energy, and space”.

“As the world’s oldest and largest democracies and key security providers in the Indo Pacific, the United States and India are increasingly partners of first resort as a combined force for global good both in the Indo Pacific and elsewhere. India will be a critical strategic partner for the United States in the coming decades,” the official said. They added that India’s “growing commitment to playing a more engaged international role” under Mr Modi “demonstrates a new and growing willingness to join the United States to protect and advance a shared vision of a free, open and rule based rules based global order as a strong maritime democracy”.

The official said that in the Biden administration’s view, there “is no more consequential” partner than India, “now and into the future”.

“We are hosting India for an official state visit to put our cooperation on an inexorable trajectory — we’re seeking escape velocity as we support India’s emergence as a great power that will be central to ensuring US interests and the interests of our partners in the coming decades,” they added.

A second official said Mr Biden and Mr Modi will use the occasion of the Indian leader’s visit to announce a new US-India initiative “on critical and emerging technologies,” which will include the addition of New Delhi to the Artemis Accords space exploration agreement and a joint mission to the International Space Station between Nasa and the Indian Space Research Organisation next year.

Additionally, the US will announce support for India’s entry into the State Department-led Minerals Security Partnership, which the official said would “strengthen critical minerals supply chain” and ensure that the US and Indian markets are “supplied with essential critical minerals that are needed for our climate, economic and strategic technology goals”.

On defence matters, another official said Mr Biden and Mr Modi plan to announce a proposal from General Electric to produce the F404 jet engine in India through a partnership between DE and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

“This is a trailblazing initiative to manufacture F404 engines in India will enable greater transfer of US jet engine technology than ever before,” said the official, who added that the defence cooperation between Washington and New Delhi would expand to include a master ship repair agreement that will allow US Navy vessels “to undertake servicing and even major repair at Indian shipyards”.

Mr Modi and Mr Biden will also reveal plans for India to begin purchasing US-made MQ-9 Reaper drones, which the official said would “substantially grow India’s [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capabilities”.

Yet despite the planned announcements and festivities to mark Mr Modi’s time in Washington — including the traditional state dinner at the White House on Thursday — not everyone in Mr Biden’s party is happy about Mr Modi’s planned reception in Washington.

Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Narendra Modi to the White House (AP)

A group of progressive Democrats in Congress, led by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is planning to boycott Mr Modi’s planned address to the US Congress on Thursday, citing Mr Modi’s record on human rights and religious freedom.

“I encourage my colleagues who stand for pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of the press to join me in doing the same,” the New York Democrat wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, arguing Congress shouldn’t extend such an honour to “individuals with deeply troubling human rights records – particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded are engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed minorities”.

The Indian leader has been accused of being complicit in sectarian violence in which over 1,000 Muslims were killed in 2002 while he was chief minister of Gujarat. Mr Modi allegedly stood by as Hindu mobs terrorised the state’s Muslim population in retaliatory violence after a group of Hindu pilgrims were killed, though he was later cleared by a team appointed by the Indian Supreme Court.

Two other Democrat representatives – Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, both of whom are Muslim – are also boycotting the speech.

“It’s shameful that Modi has been given a platform at our nation’s capital — his long history of human rights abuses, anti-democratic actions, targeting Muslims & religious minorities, and censoring journalists is unacceptable,” Ms Tlaib wrote on Twitter of the decision. “I will be boycotting Modi’s joint address to Congress.”

“Prime Minister Modi’s government has repressed religious minorities, emboldened violent Hindu nationalist groups, and targeted journalists/human rights advocates with impunity,” Ms Omar added. “I will NOT be attending Modi’s speech.”