US to send Indian astronaut to ISS next year
* Top world leaders arrive for G-20 Summit on Sept 9-10
* Sunak says won’t rush into UK-India trade deal
NEW DELHI, Sept 8:
US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today exuded confidence that the outcomes of the G20 Summit will advance the shared goals of accelerating sustainable development, bolstering multilateral cooperation and building consensus around inclusive economic policies to address greatest global challenges.
In their over 50-minute talks, PM Modi and Biden vowed to “deepen and diversify” the bilateral major defence partnership while welcoming the forward movement in India’s procurement of 31 drones and joint development of jet engines.
The two leaders also deliberated on cooperation in nuclear energy, critical and emerging technologies such as 6G and artificial intelligence, and ways to fundamentally reshape multilateral development banks.
A joint statement issued at the end of the talks said President Biden lauded India’s G20 Presidency for further “demonstrating” how the G20 as a forum is delivering important outcomes.
His comments came a day before the leaders of the Group of 20 large economies are set to hold deliberations on pressing global challenges and ways to deal with them at the bloc’s annual summit in New Delhi.
Biden arrived in Delhi at around 7 pm on his first visit to India as the US President. He was greeted at the airport with songs and a musical show.
“The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the G20 and expressed confidence that the outcomes of the G20 Leaders’ summit in New Delhi will advance the shared goals of accelerating sustainable development, bolstering multilateral cooperation, and building global consensus around inclusive economic policies to address our greatest common challenges, including fundamentally reshaping and scaling up multilateral development banks,” the statement said.
The joint statement said the “leaders re-emphasised that the shared values of freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, pluralism, and equal opportunities for all citizens are critical to the success our countries enjoy and that these values strengthen our relationship”.
It said the US President welcomed the issuance of a Letter of Request from India’s defence ministry to procure 31 MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft from American defence giant General Atomics.
The two leaders also welcomed the completion of the Congressional notification process and the commencement of negotiations for a commercial agreement between GE Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to manufacture GE F-414 jet engines in India.
They “recommitted” to work collaboratively and expeditiously to support the advancement of this unprecedented co-production and technology transfer proposal, the statement said.
Modi and Biden also reaffirmed technology’s defining role in deepening the India-US strategic partnership and lauded ongoing efforts through the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) to build open, accessible, secure, and resilient technology ecosystems and value chains, based on mutual confidence and trust.
“The United States and India intend to undertake a midterm review of iCET in September 2023 to continue to drive momentum toward the next annual iCET review, co-led by the National Security Advisors of both countries, in early 2024,” the statement said.
In a post on ‘X’, Modi said, “Happy to have welcomed @POTUS @JoeBiden to 7, Lok Kalyan Marg. Our meeting was very productive.”
“We were able to discuss numerous topics which will further economic and people-to-people linkages between India and USA. The friendship between our nations will continue to play a great role in furthering global good,” he added.
On his part, Biden said on ‘X’, “Hello, Delhi! It’s great to be in India for this year’s G20.”
The joint statement said Biden reaffirmed his support for a reformed UN Security Council with India as a permanent member, and, in this context, welcomed once again India’s candidature for the UNSC non-permanent seat in 2028-29.
“The leaders once again underscored the need to strengthen and reform the multilateral system so it may better reflect contemporary realities and remain committed to a comprehensive UN reform agenda, including through expansion in permanent and non-permanent categories of membership of the UN Security Council,” the statement said.
The two leaders reiterated their support for building resilient global semiconductor supply chains, noting in this respect a multi-year initiative of Microchip Technology, Inc, to invest approximately USD 300 million in expanding its research and development presence in India.
They also referred to Advanced Micro Device’s announcement to invest USD 400 million in India over the next five years.
Modi and Biden also welcomed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Bharat 6G Alliance and Next G Alliance, operated by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, as a first step towards deepening public-private cooperation between vendors and operators.
The two leaders reaffirmed the importance of Quad in supporting a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific.
It said PM Modi looked forward to welcoming President Biden to the next Quad leaders’ summit to be hosted by India in 2024.
The two leaders also called on their governments to continue the work on transforming the India-US strategic partnership across all dimensions and reiterated their support for building resilient global semiconductor supply chains.
India and the US also said they have started talks to put in place a strategic framework for human space flight by year-end as they plan to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station in 2024.
US President Joe Biden also congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 at the south polar region of the Moon and the success of Aditya-L1 solar mission.
“Determined to deepen our partnership in outer space exploration, ISRO and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have commenced discussions on modalities, capacity building, and training for mounting a joint effort to the International Space Station in 2024, and are continuing efforts to finalise a strategic framework for human space flight cooperation by the end of 2023,” said a joint statement issued after the 52-minute talks between the two leaders.
During Modi’s visit to the US in June, Biden had announced India and the US were collaborating to send an astronaut to the international space station in 2024.
Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that there is progress in talks between India and Britain on a free trade agreement, but he “won’t rush” into the trade deal, according to a report by BBC.
Sunak is here to attend the G20 Summit on September 9-10.
The remarks assume significance as the 12th round of talks concluded last month between the officials of the two countries. The talks for the agreement were launched in January 2022.
According to the report, Sunak has said that he would not set a deadline for the conclusion of negotiations.
Progress has been made, but “we are not there yet,” the BBC report said quoting the UK Prime Minister.
“I won’t rush things for the sake of it until they’re right for us,” he added.
Besides Biden aand Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and other leaders of the G20 grouping as well as chiefs of many leading world bodies like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gathered in the national capital for the summit beginning Saturday.
The leaders were welcomed by traditional dance performances by various troupes and a smiling IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva danced to the beat of the music at the airport.
Security was beefed up across the national capital, especially in New Delhi district, ahead of the eighteenth G20 summit to be held at the iconic Bharat Mandapam, with police, paramilitary forces and other agencies keeping a hawk-eye vigil. It is for the first time that India is hosting the summit of the 19 countries and the European Union, representing the world’s major developed and emerging economies.
India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration will reflect the voice of the global south and developing countries.
“Our New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration is almost ready, I would not like to dwell on it because this declaration will be recommended to the leaders during the summit and the leaders will then accept it and only after it is accepted by the leaders, we will be able to talk about the actual achievements of this declaration,” he said.
“India’s expectation is that all G20 members will move towards a consensus and we are hopeful of a consensus on the communique,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said in response to a question on the possibility of Ukraine conflict holding up an agreement on the New Delhi Declaration.
The silver lining for India’s presidency is likely to be the support by almost all G20 countries to its proposal to include the African Union as a permanent member of the bloc that has emerged as perhaps the most influential multilateral forum after the United Nations.
On the inclusion of the African Union in the G20 bloc, Kwatra said he expected that the summit would take a “suitable decision” on it.
“The European Union is looking forward to welcoming the African Union as a permanent member of the G20,” President of European Council Charles Michel said, indicating consensus on the proposal. The African Union (AU) is a significant organisation comprising 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent.
The biggest question that has cropped up in the run up to the summit was whether there will be a joint leaders’ declaration in view of the sharp differences between the West and the Russia-China combine on the text to describe the Ukraine conflict in the document.
The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed in a news release that the Group of seven industrialised countries(G7) are putting “pressure” on India in an attempt to have their unilateral approaches to the situation in Ukraine reflected in the final documents of the G20 summit.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Modi said on X that it is important to emulate his mission of serving the underprivileged, the very last person in the queue, as he underlined India’s great emphasis on a human-centric way of furthering progress.
Rooted in our cultural ethos, India’s G20 presidency theme, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth, One Family, One Future’, deeply resonates with our world view that the whole world is one family, he said.(PTI)
Time to combat terror: UN Secy Gen
Terrorism is absolutely “unjustifiable” and the time has come for the international system to combat it seriously, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today while noting that India naturally has its own concerns over the menace.
In an exclusive interview to PTI, Guterres said combating terrorism must be a “fundamental priority” for “all of us” and that it is something that is very high in his priorities.
“This is something that is very high in my priorities. The first reform I made when I came to the United Nations was exactly to create the Office of counter-terrorism,” he said.
His remarks came when asked about India’s concerns over cross-border terrorism and what the United Nations can do in terms of collaborating with the member states in the fight against terrorism.
The UN Secretary General said terrorism has become a global phenomenon and that India “naturally” has its “own concerns”.
“Terrorism is indeed something that we must seriously consider and must be a fundamental priority of the international system,” he said.
Asked about China blocking attempts to blacklist certain terrorists, the UN Secretary General said the process should not be based on political considerations.
“Now, there is a mechanism within the Security Council with a committee of experts, and this is something that should not be based on political considerations that, of course, are different from area to area,” he said.
“I think this should be done with solid technical expertise in order to be able to identify those that are terrorists and must suffer the corresponding sanctions,” he added.
In the last few years, China repeatedly blocked proposals at the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based terrorists. (PTI)
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