SCMP - Mutual China challenges discussed between US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

 SCMP - 

Mutual China challenges discussed between US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Two said to have ‘expressed concern over coercive actions and rising tensions’ in Indo-Pacific and ‘strongly oppose’ change in status quo by force

Modi’s state visit capped by meeting with tech company leaders as Biden administration aims to diversify supply chains away from China

Khushboo Razdan

Khushboo Razdan in Washington

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Published: 6:20am, 24 Jun, 2023

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed challenges that China poses to both their countries during a bilateral meeting on Thursday, a top White House official said on Friday.

“The challenges presented by the PRC to both our nations were on the agenda yesterday, no question about that,” said US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby of the talks.

It was when Kirby was asked whether India served as a counterweight to China that he explained the leaders had taken up China in their conversation. He said Modi’s three-day state visit to the US was not about leveraging India.

Kirby cited New Delhi’s “own challenges with China as well, right on their doorstep” in a reference to the long-running border dispute between the Asian neighbours. He said India as a sovereign, independent state had its own foreign policy to manage and that “they live in a tough neighbourhood”.

Tensions have stayed high along the 3,200km Chinese-Indian border following a fatal brawl in 2020 that led to the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese men.

More than 18 rounds of bilateral military and diplomatic talks have taken place over the past two years. In March, Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar described the situation at the border as “quite dangerous”. However, a Chinese foreign ministry read-out in April called the situation “generally stable”.

In December, the US for the first time shared with India advanced intelligence, including satellite imagery, about Chinese positions before a border clash between the Asian countries’ troops.

Kirby on Friday said Washington and New Delhi sought to improve their defence cooperation, adding that there was “a lot we can do on the security front together”.

His remarks followed Thursday’s announcement of major US-India defence agreements including the transfer of American jet engine technology and sale of 31 MQ-9B drones worth US$3 billion to New Delhi.

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The deal cements India’s standing in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a US-led four-nation grouping that includes Japan and Australia and functions as a counterweight to China’s rising clout in the Indo-Pacific region.

Asked whether Taiwan came up during Biden’s meeting with Modi, Kirby said the “Indians have been very vocal about their concerns, too, with respect to what the PRC is doing” in the region.

A self-ruled island, Taiwan is considered a renegade province by Beijing that is to be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Modi likewise did not name China during his address before a joint session of the US Congress on Thursday, instead saying “dark clouds of coercion and confrontation” were casting a shadow in the Indo-Pacific.

Biden and Modi were said to have “expressed concern over coercive actions and rising tensions, and strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force” in the region, according to a joint statement released after their bilateral meeting.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Friday. Photo: Reuters

The two also “emphasised the importance of adherence to international law”, particularly as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the maintenance of freedom of navigation and overflight, including in the East and South China seas, the statement added.

Beijing claims large swathes of the South China Sea in a dispute with the Philippines, a mutual defence treaty ally of the US. While Washington does not have any territorial claims in the region, it asserts the right to innocent passage under the freedom of navigation. Beijing says US actions violate international law due to the use of military ships and aircraft.

India, after long maintaining a neutral stance on the issue, has made a tilt towards Washington. New Delhi in 2020 called the South China Sea a “part of global commons”.

On Friday, Kirby said the US-India partnership was “deeper and more expansive than it’s ever been”, including in areas of critical emerging technology, climate change efforts, global health, energy security and food security.

“There’s just simply no partner that’s going to be more consequential to helping solve those problems than India,” he added.

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Hours earlier, Biden and Modi held a joint meeting with their senior cabinet members as well as senior officers and CEOs from leading American and Indian companies including Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani.

That meeting involved a discussion of “innovation, investment, and manufacturing in a variety of technology sectors, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors and space”, Kirby said on Friday.

The high-level engagement with tech leaders came as the Biden administration aims to diversify supply chains away from China.

After a lavish state dinner on Thursday at the White House, Modi was hosted by US Secretary of State of Antony Blinken and Vice-President Kamala Harris at a state lunch on Friday, the last day of his visit.

Meanwhile, American chip maker Micron, which in May was banned by Chinese regulators from key infrastructure projects, is poised to set up a US$2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India.

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Asked whether Biden called on India to reduce its purchase of Russian oil to support Ukraine, Kirby said India would make its own choices about oil buying and “we hope that we can continue to see that they purchase Russian oil at or below the price cap as they have been”.

In December, the Group of 7 countries – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US – along with Australia, imposed a price cap on imports of Russian oil by non-Western countries that they contend have been funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Kirby declined to confirm reports that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan would visit Copenhagen over the weekend for a meeting on Ukraine. Officials from India, Brazil and South Africa – members of the BRICS grouping that also includes China and Russia – will be joining Sullivan, according to the reports.

Asked whether Biden was satisfied with Modi’s statement on Thursday that there was no discrimination in India on the basis of religion and caste amid some members of the Democratic Party raising concerns about his human rights record, Kirby said “the president was satisfied that he had the opportunity to discuss concerns over human rights” with Modi.

Some observers have criticised Biden for hosting Modi, who was once denied a US visa for violence against Muslim minorities under his watch in 2002 while he lectured other nations, including China on human rights, and called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator.

“He’ll continue to speak forthrightly and bluntly about the challenges that we face with the PRC,” Kirby said when asked if Biden would apologise for the dictator description. “He will also continue to speak bluntly and forthrightly about the opportunities that are still resident in that relationship and trying to move that relationship forward”.

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Khushboo Razdan

Khushboo Razdan

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Khushboo Razdan is a correspondent based in New York. Before joining the Post, she worked as a multimedia journalist in Beijing and New Delhi for over a decade. She’s a graduate of Columbia Journalism School.