"Beijing and Moscow will be keenly watching PM Modi's visit to US," Research Fellow
Jun 20, 2023
Washington DC [US], June 20 : Research Fellow & Director at Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia Aparna Pande, said that Beijing and Moscow will be keenly watching Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the United States (US).
While talking about the global powers who will be watching the visit, she said, "This state visit will be watched by Beijing because China has always been concerned that the closer India gets to the United States, the more it moves away from non-alignment. It not only gets economic investment and technology but it is going to get defence equipment like the predator drones which for example India is using... and can use in the maritime area."
The second capital that will be watching it is Moscow, she added, "because traditionally India's largest supplier of defence equipment has been Russia but American equipment is high-end and high-technology and so Russia will be concerned that the more India purchases American equipment, the less likely it will in the future purchase Russian equipment."
"Third, I would say the capitals in the region will be watching whether it's Islamabad, Dhaka, Kathmandu, or Columbo because from their point of view, the closer India gets to the US, it has the impact on their relationship with the US," she further said.
Aparna said, "Symbolically, it is important for President Biden because the Biden administration has placed a strategic bet on India that India's rise is good for American national interest."
It's important for PM Modi to show that he has received an official state visit and that he will be meeting President Biden about three times this year; Hiroshima, DC, and Delhi for G20 meet, she said.
"For an Indian leader to show that the president of only power, as of now, the only superpower in the world values the relationship with India matters a lot," Aparna said.
Aparna talked emphasized the India-US relationship and said, "It is important because the India-US economic relationship has grown to about USD 190 billion and they will like to take it to USD 500 billion. The defence partnership has grown with a defence industrial roadmap and India's purchase of the predator drone as well as the GE jet engine and the third is the very strong people-to-people relationship."
Indian diaspora which is in New York City is going to be there on Wednesday to welcome everybody on the south lawn on Friday. It shows the strength of people to people dimension which has normally been the strongest element of this partnership..., she said.
India and US are working on the Indo-Pacific strategy, its economic forum, Quad, and middle eastern Quad.
