President Joe Biden highlighted the strong trade ties between the United States and India, stating that the economic relationship between the two countries has almost doubled over the past decade.
Issuing a joint press statement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (local time), President Biden pointed to the thriving economic relationship between Washington and New Delhi and said, “Our economic relationship is booming. Trade between our countries has almost doubled over the past decade to more than USD 191 billion supporting tens of thousands of good jobs in both India and the United States.” According to Biden, the purchase of more than 200 American-made Boeing aircraft by Air India earlier this year will support one million American employment spread across 44 states.
He added that with this state visit of PM Modi to the US, Indian firms are announcing more than USD 2 billion in new investments in manufacturing solar in Colorado, steel in Ohio, and optic fibre in South Carolina.
“We are doubling on our cooperation to secure our semiconductor supply chains, and growing our major defence partnership with more joint exercises, more cooperation between our defence industries, and more consultation and coordination across all domains,” Biden added.
He emphasized that this visit of PM Modi exemplifies how the United States and India collaborate to advance global development, Biden said in his joint press statement today.
President Biden also mentioned various areas of cooperation, such as medical research, human spaceflight, clean energy transition, combating climate change, and joint efforts in critical and emerging technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence while ensuring their responsible use.
“From designing new ways to diagnose cancer and diabetes to collaborating on the international pace centre and treat illnesses like cancer and diabetes to collaborating on human spaceflight, including sending an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024 to accelerating the global clean energy transition and tackling the climate crisis we face, to harnessing our shared expertise on critical and emerging technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence to ensuring they are not used as tools of misinformation and oppression,” the US President said.
PM Modi on Wednesday arrived in Washington DC after overseeing a special Yoga session on the lawns of the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday (local time) hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for an intimate dinner at the White House before the high-profile state dinner.
During the dinner, the trio enjoyed a musical tribute to the regions of India, performed by youth dancers from Studio Dhoom, a DMV-based Indian dance studio that helps connect a new generation to the vibrant culture of Indian dance, according to the White House.
The leaders also exchanged gifts at the White House. PM Modi presented a special sandalwood box to US President Biden that has been handcrafted by a master craftsman from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He also gifted a lab-grown 7.5-carat green diamond and ‘papier mache’ to US First Lady Jill Biden.
Joe Biden and Jill Biden presented PM Modi with a handmade, antique American book galley from the early 20th Century. Biden also gifted a vintage American camera, accompanied by an archival facsimile print of George Eastman’s Patent of the first Kodak camera, and a hardcover book of American wildlife photography. Jill Biden gifted a signed, first-edition copy of “Collected Poems of Robert Frost” to PM Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on his maiden State visit to the US, is only the third Indian leader after former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to have this privilege.
PM Modi first visited the US in 2014, on a working visit. This visit was significant as he also delivered his maiden speech at the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
He visited the US again in 2016, for the Nuclear Security Summit. During this visit, he also met then-US President Barack Obama at the White House and held bilateral talks.
