What you need to know about Modi’s visit and US-India relations

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive a warm welcome in Washington on Thursday, where he will address a joint session of Congress and be celebrated by President Biden and the first lady at a state dinner at the White House – only the world’s third state leader. are hosted by the current board.

Surrounding the pageantry of a momentous visit for US-India relations will be weighty issues of geopolitical alignment related to China’s economic clout and Russia’s military aggression, as well as the erosion of India’s secular democracy under Mr Modi, come to the fore. How much of that will be addressed publicly by the two leaders is unclear.

The visit is a major diplomatic award for Mr Modi, who was once denied a visa to the United States for his role in religious riots in his home state, and as prime minister has increasingly consolidated power and brought his country closer to one party. brought. rule.

Yet the Biden administration has painstakingly tried to bring India closer, economically and militarily, at the cost of clouding its often outspoken worldview of a pitched battle between autocracies and democracies.

Here’s what you need to know about Mr Modi’s state visit.

The US is trying to bring India closer.

Announcing Mr Modi’s state visit, the White House press secretary said the occasion would celebrate “the warm bonds of family and friendship that connect Americans and Indians”. Like his predecessors, Mr. Biden harbored hopes that India, the world’s most populous democracy and fifth-largest economy, will counterbalance China’s growing global economic weight. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen visited India last year as part of the government’s effort to divert global supply chains from its political and economic adversaries.

“New Delhi plays a vital role in checkingmate China – if it is politically prodded, aided militarily and geopolitically encouraged by the US and its allies,” said Happymon Jacob, a lecturer in India’s foreign policy at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.

The urgency for improved relations has increased with Russia’s war against Ukraine, a geopolitical crisis that has put India at the center of the scramble between the United States and its allies and Russia’s President Vladimir V. Putin. India, while maintaining closer ties with the United States, maintains military and economic relations with Russia, buys Russian oil at a discount, and refrains from supporting United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s aggression.

Defense cooperation is high on the agenda.

The United States wants to help India strengthen its domestic defense industry and intensify military cooperation between the two countries in an effort to free India from its long-standing dependence on Russia for its weapons. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan both traveled to New Delhi this month ahead of the state visit to lay the groundwork for closer defense partnerships.

That’s about 85 percent of India’s arsenal presumably of Russian descent, the result of a decades-long defense relationship between the two countries at a time when the United States was instead supplying arms to India’s rival Pakistan. Although the share of Russian arms in India’s defense imports has declined in recent years, the country still remains dependent on Russia for parts and maintenance.

Mr Austin highlighted the increased technological cooperation, military coordination and intelligence sharing between the two countries said during his visit to New Delhi: “This all matters because we are facing a rapidly changing world. We see bullying and coercion from the People’s Republic of China, Russian aggression against Ukraine that attempts to forcefully push borders and threaten national sovereignty.”

Modi has been accused of undermining democracy.

As Mr Modi’s host, Mr Biden will rub shoulders with a leader who is immensely popular in his country but has sidelined challengers, co-opted justice systems and consolidated power to a degree that worries observers and critics about the erosion of democracy in the country that recently overtook China to become the most populous country in the world.

This week, more than 70 Democratic lawmakers urged the president in a letter to raise respect for democratic values ​​and human rights with the Indian Prime Minister, citing “disturbing signs in India towards the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, attacks on civil society organizations and journalists , and increasing restrictions on press freedom and internet access.”

Mr Modi’s India has become particularly dangerous for the country’s more than 200 million religious minorities, as his right-wing vigilante supporters have fueled religious tensions aimed at imposing Hindu supremacy on India’s constitutionally secular democracy. That has led to an eternal sense of flammability on the ground, especially for the Muslims of India.

In March, Rahul Gandhi, India’s best-known opposition leader and Mr Modi’s main rival, was convicted of defamation and sentenced to two years in prison, leading to his removal from the country’s parliament.

Mujib Mashal reporting contributed.