A Read Out of Indian Prime Minister Modi’s Recent Visit to the United States

THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Nisha Desai Biswal

Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

NSC Senior Director for India Phil Reiner

MR. REINER: First and foremost, thank you, everybody, for being here today. I look forward to this conversation. My name is Philip Reiner; I am the Senior Director for South Asia at the National Security Council, as was just introduced. I will begin with just very brief comments, leaving as much time as possible for the Q&A. I think this is the most important piece. I’ll get into a little bit in terms of the nature of the visit and the details, again, and then turn to my colleague.

So as I think all of you were very much aware, the President was very much looking forward to welcoming the prime minister here to Washington and to the White House. This was an excellent opportunity for the two of them to first and foremost to get to know each other better. This comes at a pivotal time for both of our nations, and so the conversation was very opportune.

I think, as you’re already aware the summit kicked off on Monday evening with a small private official working dinner in the official residence of the White House in the Blue Room. This was a unique opportunity for the two leaders to sit together and to exchange ideas. The focus of this conversation was primarily on the challenges of governments – governance and the issues associated with reform while trying to lead a complicated and large democracy. But also the conversation was focused on the vision that the two leaders have for our bilateral relationship and for India’s role on the global stage.

During the dinner – I think you probably have heard some of this already but I’ll give some details – much of the discussion, I think, was on the mandate that both leaders came into office with and the challenges posed by attempting to implement their agendas for action. I think what I can say is that the two leaders found a great deal of commonality in the course of their discussion, how to make government more accessible to the people and more answerable to the people, how to make sure that the government incorporates the viewpoint and the creative ideas of the youth in how it leverages – how government leverages technology in order to make government more effective and transparent. But at the end and how to use those tools in order to increase engagement between the government and the people. I think they were able also to speak to the natural affinity that we have between our two great nations, based on shared ideals and the tenets of freedom and democracy for all of our people, and I think the two leaders spoke at length about how that includes even the poorest of the poor.

The prime minister shared his vision for India with the President and discussed in some detail a number of his initiatives to include the provision of bank accounts for every Indian, creating a CTO position, a chief technology officer position within every ministry, his digital India initiative, and other important initiatives that he’s already undertaken in just his first four months as prime minister. It was a very positive engagement between the two leaders. I think one of the best aspects of it was they were able to share personal anecdotes of the President’s time in India and the prime minister’s time here in Washington back in the late 1990s.

On Tuesday then – so the next day, following the dinner – the President warmly welcomed the prime minister and his delegation to the Oval Office for an expanded set of discussions. Discussion focused on a very, very broad range of issues to include the bilateral relationship, our strategic partnership, the region, regional economic ties, global health, climate change, defense and security issues, counterterrorism, and trade and economics. So I think this is indicative of just how deep and broad the relationship really has become.

In sum, I would say that the two leaders discussed also many of the ways in which the United States can play a strong and supportive role in support of the prime minister’s objectives at home. This is incredibly important in terms of the prime minister’s agenda and I believe Nisha will speak to this a little bit as well. But in addition to that, the two leaders also spoke about how this relationship can be effective in bringing common goods to the world and not just to the two people of our nations. And they discussed that in some detail.

So it – in sum, I would say that the assessment on our part is that the prime minister’s visit was extraordinarily successful. I believe it has provided a boost in terms of the vision and focus that we have for our bilateral relations. We’re excited to be moving forward with a reenergized strategic partnership. The United States continues to strongly support a prosperous India that plays an important role in the global stage, and I think the prime minister’s visit really provided the opportunity for the two leaders to discuss that vision that’s necessary in order to set the framework under which we are going to operate going forward.

I think with that, what I’ll do is I’ll turn to Nisha and she’ll give a little bit further detail on the topics of discussion and the vision that we have going forward.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: Thanks a lot, Philip. To just reiterate, I think this visit in some ways went a long ways towards re-energizing and re-launching the bilateral relationship. It’s a relationship that fundamentally is not just government-to-government. It extends across all aspects of American society, American private sector, and engages the Indian society writ large and the Indian private sector, civil society, academic sector.

And that informed the nature of the conversations and it also informed the nature of the initiatives and the agenda between the two countries of how to harness this very rich set of connections between our two countries towards achieving shared objectives. And so it was quite refreshing and, I think, energizing to both leaders that the prime minister shared, as Philip noted, his very robust vision for India’s transformation, and he talked about the kinds of things that he would like to be working on over his tenure, which I think resonated with the President, resonated certainly with Secretary Kerry and all of us who had the opportunity to engage on that.

And so in that endeavor, I think we talked about how we can partner to address kind of the sanitation initiative that the prime minister has launched, how we can work together on expanding and extending work on clean water.

We talked about energy, and the prime minister noted that providing access to the 400 million Indians who currently don’t have sufficient access to power, to electricity, was one of his top priorities on his economic agenda. And the United States and India have had a robust energy partnership, energy dialogue, but one of the things that we were able to launch is a clean energy memorandum of understanding with the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, which would make available up to a billion dollars in financing to support the renewable energy agenda for American companies in the renewable sector to be able to partner with and provide support for clean energy projects in India.

The prime minister talked about skills and education and his desire to create new and expand the network of IITs, which bring state-of-the-art, world-class education and a partnership that would allow us to be able to partner with India as it looks to do that.

We talked about the fact that there are far still too many Indians who are affected by health insecurity, tropical diseases that collaboration on research can help address, whether it’s kala-azar or other types of diseases and how the two countries can partner on those efforts.

But we also talked about the prime minister’s desire for modernizing the infrastructure and creating smart cities and creating new efficient, effective infrastructure in India. And this is something where I think they’re seeking partnership in many different areas with many different countries, and certainly the United States and the American private sector also brings cutting-edge technology and best practices to the table. We identified three cities where the U.S. can partner on – for example, on smart cities – then we talked about working together in Ajmer in Rajasthan, in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh as places where U.S. and India can collaborate on smart cities.

We launched an infrastructure platform, which allows for the needs and priorities that are being identified by the Government of India to be matched up with particular areas of expertise and capability on the U.S. side so that we can play a greater role in connecting technology and capabilities that American companies bring to where India wants to go and where that might be greatly applicable.

And of course, on the strategic side of the partnership as well, we had a great deal to talk about and to advance. We are in the midst of renegotiating a defense framework agreement. The 10-year framework agreement that has guided our defense partnership over the past decade is coming to a close, and so we’re very much looking forward to expanding that and extending that and are in discussions on that.

We talked about the Defense Trade and Technology Initiative and, again, how we can work together to help India modernize its defense capabilities and also support India’s desire for indigenous innovation and manufacturing.

We have a strong bilateral partnership, but increasingly, that partnership is also expanding to do more with other countries in the region, and one example of that is the trilateral partnership and dialogue between the United States, Japan, and India. And the leaders built upon the announcements during the prime minister’s visit to Tokyo to elevate that discussion to a ministerial.

We also talked about doing military exercises in partnership with other countries on humanitarian response and disaster – humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and to extend and expand maritime security. And I think the United States, Japan, and India are participating jointly in the Malabar exercises, and we talked about institutionalizing those types of exercises moving forward.

In the area of space, we – the visit happened on the heels of the very exciting entry by India – by the Mars observer mission, Mangalyaan, into the Mars orbit just days after the NASA Mars observer mission made its entry. It was India’s maiden voyage and it was quite an exciting development, and we congratulated India on that feat. But it also created the basis for establishing a Mars Joint Working Hroup, where our two teams can share data and collaborate and exchange information. We also signed the agreement on creating a joint Earth observation mission, a NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar – or NISAR – mission to launch that satellite which can help advance our – and improve our understanding of climate change and natural hazards.

And we talked about our shared objectives with respect to counterterrorism cooperation, looking at the world today and the threat posed by ISIL. We know that there is much that every country in the world can contribute in terms of countering the threat of extremist groups like ISIL. We talked to our colleagues about how we can further our own efforts bilaterally, as well as what India may be able to do to support those global efforts.

I think with that in mind, I would just say we will be having in November of this year a India-U.S. Technology Summit in New Delhi. And I know that there will be several hundred companies from the United States and research institutions who will be taking part in that, again, as an opportunity to showcase how the United States and India can partner together in addressing those challenges.

Finally, I would just note in conclusion that the prime minister and the President talked about making progress with respect to civil nuclear cooperation and the creation of a contact group that can address the outstanding issues and challenges so that we can make forward progress on that very important opportunity and capture the potential and the promise of nuclear energy and what that could mean for India’s energy security.

I think with that, I would just stop, and Philip and I can take any questions that you have. But it’s a very, very robust agenda. One final point that I think both leaders discussed, and which is just a critical, critical point, is that the true test is not the launching of these initiatives, but the next six months, twelve months, eighteen months of implementation, and the desire for both sides to really redouble their efforts at taking what was launched and moving it in the form of concrete actions. And that’s what our focus is going to be as we move forward, is on that action plan for how we turn really exciting initiatives into facts on the ground.

MODERATOR: Great. So moving to the questions, I’ll do my best to call as many and hopefully all of you. Please do identify yourself by name and outlet before you pose your question. Again, I remind anybody in the back, please do speak loudly so we can make sure we get this transcribed correctly.

I’ll begin here and then I’ll move across to —

QUESTION: This is to Nisha and Phil. Aziz Haniffa with India Abroad/Rediff.com. Understandably, everyone was talking about tangible deliverables, but understandably, you know there wasn’t any signing of a BIT or some tangible progress on a nuke deal, but a contact group was formed, et cetera. How soon are you all going to hit the ground running in terms of getting movement on the BIT, which a lot of business and industry were hoping would happen?

And on climate change, has Prime Minister Modi and the Indian Government gone further than any other Indian Government has gone, or is sort of The Washington Post report a little bit of hype?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: No, I think that there was a very robust exchange on climate change. I think the prime minister was forward leaning. I’m going to turn to Phil on the specific conversations, but I think we feel very confident that we can work together to achieve India’s energy and growth objectives in ways that are more sustainable, and that there is support that we can provide in that direction in terms of the technology that exists today and India’s desire to try to adopt those clean technologies as much as possible.

MR. REINER: I think probably the most important thing to note is that the two leaders really shared a vision of how critical it is to get after this challenge of climate change. And they spoke about it not only in terms of the global challenge but in terms of the domestic challenge and how it can actually help with the prime minister’s agenda of trying to bring up the poorest of the poor and that connectivity between the two. Understanding, of course, that we have a bit of a head start in the United States and acknowledging that India has a growth agenda that it needs to take into account, but talking about the fact that there are technologies that are out there that I think we can work very closely on – and we will be discussing this in the coming weeks with India’s leadership – that will help India leapfrog to a place where they can actually accomplish things much faster than any of the other nations would have had to.

So I think there’s a great deal of work that still needs to be done. I think I probably should have mentioned that up front. That’s, I think, what Nisha alludes to in terms of our agenda going forward.

What this does, though, is it, I think, positions us very well in the climate arena, is to get after this so that we have a constructive conversation under the Contact Group under the Montreal Protocol in November. So this is very near-term, but it will be a conversation that continues over time.

QUESTION: And hitting the ground running on the nuke deal Contact Group?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: Yeah, I think that we’ve got folks who are firming up travel plans, because whether it’s on a trade policy forum to reinvigorate our conversations on trade issues, on issues like the BIT, whether it’s on the Contact Group on Civil Nuclear Cooperation, whether it’s on higher education and skills, or energy or counterterrorism, we are lining up a pretty ambitious agenda of engagement over the next – certainly through the end of this year but also looking into the first half of the next year to move forward on specifically the things that were discussed during this visit. And I think that it’s going to be a fairly intensive period of engagement, but one that we are very much looking forward to.

MODERATOR: We’ll go to the next question.

QUESTION: Could you elaborate a little bit —

MODERATOR: Identify yourself.

QUESTION: Yeah, sorry. Ashish Sen with the Tribune. Could you elaborate a little bit on what the collaboration between India and the U.S. in dismantling and disrupting Pakistan-based terrorist groups is going to look like? What sort of coordination, what would that coordination look like?

And also, specifically on the financial networks, while the PM was in Washington there was an announcement about asset freezes of groups that are based in Pakistan. How effective have these asset freezes been, considering a lot of these leaders don’t have assets in the U.S.?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: First of all, with respect to counterterrorism cooperation, we have a strong and growing collaboration between the United States and India on counterterrorism, on sharing information and intelligence and capabilities, to essentially advance our shared objectives of security. Terrorism is a threat to the region. It is a threat to the United States, to our people and our institutions around the world. And so we have sought to have a robust relationship on counterterrorism with India, with Pakistan, with all the countries of the region. And we will continue to look for ways to expand and extend that cooperation bilaterally with each of those countries as well as looking for opportunities where we see collaboration in joint arenas as well.

With respect to groups that emanate in the region versus more global threats, I think we have had longstanding discussions with all the countries of the region on that, and we will continue to engage very, very proactively on those issues. And I think we are also looking to see that regional groups and global threats – there’s not a far distance between working together to address one versus working together to address the larger, broader global set of challenges. And I think that that’s where the conversation is, is how we link up these efforts that are ongoing.

QUESTION: Would that involve – sorry, just to follow up. Would that involve military cooperation, I mean coordination on drone strikes? I’m trying to understand how you —

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: No —

QUESTION: — dismantle terror groups when you’re not (inaudible).

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: Well, those are not – those are not conversations that I’m going to get into here, but we’re certainly talking about all of the different actions that we’re taking ourselves through U.S. strikes in – against ISIL, for example. And we’re also open to our conversations with all of our partners in the region about what role they want to play and how they can be helpful in those efforts.

MODERATOR: I’ll go here and then I’m going to go to the back.

QUESTION: Yashwant Raj from Hindustan Times. You – Philip said in the beginning in his initial remarks that one of the goals of this visit was to get the two leaders to meet and to get to know each other.

MR. REINER: Yeah.

QUESTION: How well was that objective achieved? And could you elaborate a little bit, some granular details, color of how those two leaders interacted? This was the first meeting, after all.

MR. REINER: Yes.

QUESTION: And one of them was fasting.

MR. REINER: Yes.

QUESTION: And so how did it go – with some color? We haven’t gotten very much from the Indians, unfortunately, so help us out.

MR. REINER: Well, it was in the Blue Room. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: There’s the color.

MR. REINER: I think you can look at a number of different components of the visit that really is illustrative of just how personal the dialogue was. The fact of the matter being that the President of the United States went with the prime minister of India to the Martin Luther King memorial I think is – provides a great deal of color. I think this is indicative of just how comfortable they had gotten to be, I think. In the dinner itself, they were able to share – the President was able to look fondly back upon his time when he was in India with his family. I think there some conversation about how enjoyable it was to be in India and to be able to dance. This was, I think, a very warm moment. I think that the prime minister remarked upon his time when he was back here in D.C. years ago.

They shared a lot of stories. I found – probably the most interesting was they found a great – and I mentioned this in my opening comments – a great deal of common experience when it comes to first coming into government and realizing just how bad government works, and acknowledging that there is so much more that could be done in government with technology, but it’s just so much slower inside. And so you have to bring in the right people who can help you actually achieve a greater speed with processes, et cetera. There was actually a moment where you had had a succession of back-and-forth between the two leaders where the prime minister would say something, and the President would say, “Yeah, I identify with that.” Because we’ve – when the President came in, he was facing the greatest economic catastrophe this country – the world has seen since the Depression in the ‘30s. The prime minister was speaking to the same, that India has faced a mass exodus of industrial investment and that as he has come in the door, you’ve already seen a turnaround. You’ve seen the stock market really explode. You’ve seen the growth rate increase.

And so they had, I thought, a very personal conversation in terms of just how challenging it is upfront. And Nisha was actually there, too. It was, I thought, a very –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: It was a very warm dinner.

MR. REINER: Yeah.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: They joked about the fact that the rest were eating and the prime minister was fasting, and I think the President expressed admiration for –

MR. REINER: Yes.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: — the energy and the vigor with which the prime minister was able to maintain this rigorous schedule on a diet of only warm water. And I think the President also expressed interest in having a conversation about yoga.

MR. REINER: That’s right.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: And so I think that there were some of these very personal, very human moments of interaction.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) (Laughter.)

MODERATOR: I think we have to give time to other questions.

QUESTION: I have a follow-up. Sorry.

MODERATOR: If I could go here to the back, and then I’ll come over here to the table again.

QUESTION: My name is Benazir Shah, Newsweek Pakistan. In what context besides counterterrorism Pakistan discussed in between the President and Mr. Modi? And did Kashmir figure into the discussion?

MR. REINER: I think the two leaders had a very positive conversation not only about our own bilateral relationship but the relationship I think that Prime Minister Modi is interested in developing and pushing forward with his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. I think – in general terms, that there wasn’t a great deal of specifics on economics or – and I’m almost 100 percent sure that the word Kashmir actually did not come up. But I thought it was a very strong and positive conversation about the potential that is inherent. And I think that everyone saw with the invitation that was extended to Pakistan’s leader to come to New Delhi for the inauguration, I think there’s a great of interest on the Indian side to see that relationship grow and move in the right direction. And that was, I think, the basic – the gist of the conversation.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: The other point I think that was shared across was the desire to support and strengthen democracy across the region —

MR. REINER: That’s right.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: — that democratic societies tend to advance stability, prosperity, and become better neighbors and better partners. And there was a very strong desire to take actions that support and strengthen democratic institutions, including in Pakistan, and valuing Pakistan’s democracy as well.

MR. REINER: Yeah. It was a very positive conversation.

MODERATOR: I’ll go to the question here.

QUESTION: Seema Sirohi, Economic Times and Gateway House. I was wondering if you could give us a flavor of the discussions in China. I see a reference to South China Sea. Is this a first? There’s some dispute whether it’s a first mention in a joint statement by India and the U.S. And also about Afghanistan. What were the kinds of discussions about cooperation post-2014?

MR. REINER: I think in general – I’ll take the second question first – I think in general on Afghanistan, there was a positive discussion in terms of the progress that’s been made in the recent couple of weeks – the unity government in Kabul, the need to continue to support Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s people through the great deal of investment that India has already made, the continued support that the ANSF will see from the United States, and I think our mutual interest in seeing Afghanistan’s stability really be the focus. It was a positive conversation.

On China, I think really the way that I would characterize this is there was a discussion about not so much China per se, but in terms of India’s perspective in its place regionally. And the prime minister spoke a bit about what he saw as a convergence between our two somewhat simultaneous, if you will, foreign policies of a rebalance and the Indian “Act East” foreign policy. These things are – they’re naturally, I think, conducive –

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: Reinforcing.

MR. REINER: — conducive to one another and reinforcing.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: And also our interest in supporting maritime security, open free trade and commerce, and a rules-based system that allows all countries to grow and meet their aspirations in a balanced way that does not impinge on another country’s ability to meet its own economic aspirations. And so I think that those were all good things we recognize and we encourage a very strong relationship between India and China.

We recognize and support strong relationships by India with all of its neighbors and with all of the region. We don’t see that as competing with or contrary to our own relationship with India. And so it was in that sense a very, very constructive conversation about inclusivity rather than exclusivity in terms of relationships and partnerships.

QUESTION: Can I just have a quick follow-up?

MODERATOR: Very quickly, because we have a lot of people that need to ask questions and not much more time.

QUESTION: Did the prime minister brief you about the border incursion during Xi Jinping’s visit?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: I don’t believe we had a specific conversation on that issue.

MODERATOR: We’ll go here and then —

QUESTION: Thank you. The prime minister brought a number of gifts for the President. Do you know what the President’s thoughts were on the gifts? And what are the gifts the President gave to our prime minister?

And secondly, at what point of time President decided to go to the – join Prime Minister Modi to go to the Martin Luther King Memorial? And when did they start writing about the joint op-ed, and how did the conversation took place?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: That’s a lot packed into one question.

MR. REINER: That was like seven. (Laughter.) That was like seven questions. (Laughter.)

MODERATOR: (Inaudible) follow up.

MR. REINER: Well, in terms of – I’ll be very candid. In terms of presidential travel, those sorts of decisions are not disclosed openly well in advance of any sort of movement. So when a decision was made to actually go to MLK, that was pretty much close-hold.

In terms of the President’s reception of the gifts, I have not had a personal conversation with him, but I assure you that the gifts were very warmly received. I think these again show an indication of the history and connectivity that we have between our two countries. And historical connection and the deep thought you could tell that was put in to those gifts, I thought was very – it’s very strong.

In terms of the gift that we provided, it was, I thought, an incredible one in terms of it pointing again to that history and that connection. Swami Vivekananda’s – you’re familiar with the nature of the gift?

QUESTION: No, we are not.

QUESTION: Yeah.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: Although, we don’t normally disclose gifts of a personal nature, I think that this one was particularly evocative. It’s a rare book; over a hundred years old, published immediately after the World Congress on Religions. It is an original edition of that book from 1894, and it has in it that lecture by Swami Vivekananda to the Chicago World Congress on Religions. It’s, like I said, a rare book that we found from, I guess that was what, 120, 130 years ago and that we were able to locate and acquire and gift to the prime minister from the President. So —

QUESTION: What’s the name of the book?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY BISWAL: That’s a good question. I believe it is the Compendium of —