NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden on Friday held their first bilateral meeting in Washington where they agreed to fight challenges like Covid and climate change together while strengthening mutual ties.
In his opening remarks, Biden recalled his Mumbai visit in his capacity of US vice-president and said that ties between the US and India are destined to grow. “We must take on challenges like Covid and climate change together,” he said. Both invoked Mahatma Gandhi and his values of non-violence. Biden is the third US President since 2014 to hold a bilateral meeting with Modi.
Modi said Biden’s presidency will sow the seeds for better bilateral ties and also for all democracies across the world. “You have taken unique initiatives since you assumed office with regard to Covid, climate change and Quad. We will work together on these issues, which will benefit not only our countries but the entire world,” Modi told his host.
Modi said technology would be a significant player in the coming decade across the world. “Technology will be used for betterment of humanity and will provide tremendous opportunities,” he said and added that trade will also continue to play an important part in bilateral relations.
In the delegation-level talks, the two leaders discussed cooperation in various sectors like trade, defence and security, including matters of regional and global importance, like the Afghan situation. At the Quad summit that followed, Modi said its vaccine initiative would greatly help the countries of the Indo-Pacific. Modi, along with Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, participated in the first-ever in-person Quad leaders’ summit in New York. “Be it Covid, security or technology, the Quad will work together and will be a force for global good,” Modi said.
Biden announced Quad scholarships where 25 students from each member country would be able to pursue master’s degrees in prestigious US universities. Morrison said Australia believes in a free and open Indo-Pacific while Suga pressed the US to lift restrictions on the import of Japanese products like rice.