INDIA: Biden's National Security Advisor To Travel To India Next Week

The White House has confirmed that President Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, will travel to India next week to prepare for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US state visit later this month.

• Reuters reports that a White House official said: "The visit of the prime minister is an opportunity for the president to affirm a vision of the U.S. and India among the closest partners in the world. The national security adviser's trip next week to India is focusing on a lot of that... and making sure that we're moving in the right direction."
• Modi's trip comes as the Biden administration struggles to convince Delhi to apply pressure on Russia to withdraw from Ukraine and pivot away from a dependence on Russian military hardware.
• Modi is expected to sign off on a deal with Biden which would allow General Electric to manufacture jet engines for Indian military aircraft but India still sources nearly half of its military hardware from Russia.
• The official told Reuters: "I think that we're moving forward on that in a good way. We're going to be notifying that to Congress shortly."