Biden won’t come in Jan, remains fully committed to India partnership: Sullivan
US President Joe Biden won’t be able to make it to India in late January but he is “personally committed” to deepening ties with India, he shares a “close personal bond” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and he looks forward to engaging with Modi “in the weeks and months ahead”, US National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan has said.
In an exclusive response, when asked about reports of Biden not travelling to India for the Republic Day ceremony, Sullivan, Biden’s closest foreign policy aide and an architect of the relationship with India, told HT: “Due to scheduling demands, we notified Indian officials that the President would be unable to visit India in late January.”
US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti had publicly said on September 20 that Modi invited Biden for the Republic Day ceremony when they met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Delhi. HT reported, on September 1, of the buzz in the Delhi-DC corridor of the possibility of this visit, which was to be merged with a Quad Leaders’ Summit that India was hoping to host at the same time if the schedule of all leaders aligned. This week, officials in Delhi told reporters that Biden was not coming, and the Quad meeting would be held later.
Sullivan’s comments are the first by any American official about the rescheduling of the visit. It is unusual because the US doesn’t usually comment on visits that the administration hasn’t formally announced in the first place. But it is being seen as a signal from the American side that the strategic relationship is robust and will continue to deepen, especially in the wake of the controversy triggered by the US Department of Justice’s indictment that implicates a serving Indian official in an assassination plot of a designated terrorist on American soil. American officials have emphasised that the decision on the visit has nothing to do with the controversy.
Sullivan said, “In June, and again in September, the President and Prime Minister affirmed a vision of the United States and India as among the closest partners in the world – and have worked steadily to advance our strategic partnership across all domains, including in critical and emerging technology, space, defence and much more. This work will continue.”
Sullivan himself helms the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (ICET) along with India’s NSA Ajit Doval. Sullivan’s deputy, Jon Finer, was in Delhi in early December to conduct a mid-term comprehensive review of iCET with both sides agreeing to expand the scope of the mechanism. Over the weekend, the US and South Korea announced they will work with India in the domain, in the first trilateral partnership of its kind.
Sullivan also said he had “witnessed first-hand” the “close personal bond” between Biden and Modi, as well as their “shared commitment to advancing the aspirations of their people for a prosperous future”. “The President remains personally committed to carrying forward this partnership, which he has often described as the most consequential partnership for the US over the century unfolding,” Sullivan said.
He added that Biden looked forward to “remaining personally engaged” with Modi “in the weeks and months ahead”.
Given the uncertainty around the Quad Leaders’ Summit — India will enter the election cycle in February while the US will get busy with its presidential election cycle next year — Sullivan said, “The President looks forward to the next meeting of the Quad leaders, and to continue our efforts to deliver results for the region and advance a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”