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US Vice-Prez arrives to discuss trade, defence ties New Delhi, July 22 Shortly after his arrival, Biden, who is accompanied by his wife Jill, visited Gandhi Smriti to pay homage to the Father of the Nation. Biden, who had visited India last in 2008 as a Senator, will hold substantive talks with Indian leaders, including President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Singh tomorrow on a range of bilateral issues as well as global developments, particularly the situation in Afghanistan. However, no delegation-level talks are scheduled during his visit. He will visit India’s financial capital of Mumbai on Wednesday and, among other engagements, address a meeting of top Indian businesses on the US-India partnership at the Bombay Stock Exchange. The vice-presidential visit comes within a month of the India-US strategic dialogue between External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Secretary of State John Kerry in New Delhi on June 25. Biden’s visit promises to be one of the most important events in relations between the two countries since President Barack Obama’s visit to India in November 2010 when he declared India as Washington’s key partner in global affairs and backed his host’s candidature for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. Ahead of Biden’s visit, the White House said the trip would provide an important opportunity to strengthen Washington’s partnership within the region and reaffirm its commitment to rebalancing US foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific.American officials have identified four areas that the Vice-President would discuss with his Indian hosts: bilateral trade and how to close the gap and grow it; energy cooperation, including how to fructify the civilian nuclear deal; building on the already strong defence ties; and regional cooperation relating to terrorism and maritime security. Informed sources here said Biden’s talks would build on the areas of convergence seen during Kerry’s visit and seek to narrow differences on a host of trade-related irritants and strategic issues. India is also expected to raise with Biden its concerns over the proposed US immigration reforms, which could badly affect this country’s IT industry. Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who were recently in the US, strongly took up the issue with American business leaders, pointing out that the proposed new visa fees were “discriminatory” and would be construed as a “non-tariff trade barrier.” The visit comes at a time when both India and the USA are seeking to stabilise situation in Afghanistan with NATO troops set to withdraw from the war-ravaged nation in 2014. Biden is expected to throw light on America’s thinking on Afghanistan and pitch for a greater Indian role in that country. He is also likely to discuss with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh his proposed visit to the US to address the UN General Assembly meet and hold talks with President Obama. On The US Agenda
* Bilateral trade & how to close gap *
Energy cooperation, including how to fructify the civilian nuclear deal *
Consolidating defence ties * Regional cooperation relating to terrorism and maritime security The irritants
* Biden’s talks would seek to narrow differences on a host of trade-related irritants and strategic issues *
India is expected to raise concerns over the proposed US immigration reforms, which could badly affect India’s IT industry *
The visit comes at a time when both India and the USA are seeking to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan as NATO troops set to withdraw in 2014.
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