Biden and Modi deals span drones, jet engines, chips

June 22, 2023 3:26 pm

Washington : President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce a series of defense and commercial deals designed to improve military and economic ties between their nations during Thursday’s state visit at the White House, senior US officials said.

General Electric Co. unveiled plans to jointly manufacture F414 engines with state-owned Indian firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for the Tejas light-combat aircraft, as part of an effort to improve defense- and technology-sharing as China becomes more assertive in the Indo-Pacific.

Biden and Modi will discuss a deal for MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by General Atomics, and a new defense pact that will allow American Navy ships to undertake major repairs at Indian shipyards.

And the two leaders plan to debut a series of semiconductor deals designed to take advantage of Indian subsidies intended to bring advanced technology manufacturing to the South Asian nation.

Micron Technology Inc. will announce an investment of more than $800 million toward a $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and testing facility in India, while Applied Materials Inc. will announce a new semiconductor center for commercialization and innovation. Chip manufacturer Lam Research will also announce a training program in India for up to 60,000 engineers.

The accords unfold as India has sought to increase its engagement on the global stage both diplomatically and economically, the officials, who detailed the plans before their official announcement on the condition of anonymity, said in a call with reporters.

The announcements — which also include closer cooperation between the countries’ space programs as well as efforts by the US to make visas easier for Indian workers to obtain — occur on a day of elaborate pageantry for Modi, who will be attending his first ever official state visit at the White House.

The visit includes meetings with Biden and top American officials, a brief press conference — a rarity for the Indian leader — and an address in the afternoon to the US Congress. Upon his arrival on Wednesday evening, the Bidens presented Modi with a vintage American camera, a book of American wildlife photography, and a signed first edition of the collected poems of Robert Frost.

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At night, hundreds of celebrity guests and business executives — including Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai and Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella — are to gather under a tent on the South Lawn of the White House for a vegetarian-forward meal prepared by guest chef Nina Curtis that includes grilled corn salad, stuffed portobello mushrooms, and rose and cardamom-infused strawberry shortcake.

Musical performers are include Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell and Penn Masala, a South Asian a capella group founded by University of Pennsylvania students.

Yet the hope in both New Delhi and Washington is that the gathering portends deeper and lasting relations — particularly because the two nations have a long history of announcing cooperation agreements that fail to come off.

Additional announcements include Indian plans to sign the Artemis Accords, a framework signed by two-dozen nations — but not Russia or China — governing joint missions and civilian space exploration. Modi met with SpaceX chief Elon Musk in New York on Tuesday. NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization have also agreed to a joint mission next year to visit the International Space Station.

The US State Department also plans to begin a pilot program that would allow certain visas to be renewed domestically, meaning workers would not have to travel back to their home countries to extend their authorization to stay in the US. Some Indians in the US on H-1B and L-1 visas — used frequently by skilled workers and corporate executives — would be eligible for the program.

The US aides said Indian officials were pleased with their efforts to cut through red tape that had inhibited past deals, and said they were determined to make sure the agreements announced Thursday actually came to fruition.

Still, there are also expected to be moments of tension in the meetings between the two leaders. India has been reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, and has aggressively purchased Russian oil. The South Asian nation received 1.96 million barrels a day from Russia last month, 15% more than the previous high in April, according to data from Vortexa Ltd.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier this week that the US hoped India would continue to abide by the price cap on Russian oil that Washington helped to negotiate.