INDIA: Modi And Biden To Announce New Defence Agreements

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Washington today ahead of his White House State Visit on Thursday. After a bilateral with President Biden on Thursday, Modi will address a joint session of Congress.

• The two leaders will announce a raft of arms deals and defence agreement designed to entice Delhi out of Moscow’s orbit and position India as a counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific.
• Reuters: “Washington and New Delhi, whose relationship was marked by mutual suspicion during the Cold War, have been moving closer for over two decades now...”
• Semfor: “Senior Biden administration officials have described India as the U.S.’s most consequential bilateral relationship for the coming century.... But it’s not clear if Modi — or any other Indian leader — truly wants to embrace this role as Beijing’s foil.”
• The most significant deal will be a technology-transfer agreement which will allow General Electric to jointly manufacture jet engines for India’s next generation aircraft. Semafor notes that, “such a sharing of advanced U.S. defense technology is rare… and signals Washington’s desire to transform India into a major strategic partner in Asia.”