President Joe Biden spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, and leaders of the world’s two largest democracies agreed to strengthen the association of their nations at a time when the two countries are facing relations. tense with China.
India is in the midst of a nine-month military confrontation with China along its disputed border east of Ladakh. Tens of thousands of soldiers face off in friction points in the region at sub-zero temperatures. At the same time, Biden is determined to step away from former President Donald Trump’s cold, cold relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump made a court and made an alternative fall from Beijing, pushing for a major trade deal, while minimizing China’s efforts to crush pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. Trump also initially assured Americans that China had the coronavirus “very well controlled.” before later blaming the Chinese government, which often uses xenophobic language, for being responsible for the worst public health crisis in the United States in more than a century.
The White House said in a statement that Biden and Modi “agreed to continue close cooperation to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific” and added that the leaders “resolved that the rule of law and the process must be maintained. democratic “in Myanmar, days after a military coup in the Southeast Asian nation.
Biden and Modi are no strangers. As a senator, Biden was a major advocate of the 2008 nuclear deal.
The 2008 nuclear deal paved the way for the supply of high-tech equipment from the United States that India wanted along with the technology. The agreement put an end to the isolation of India after conducting nuclear tests in 1998 and refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The United States also supports India’s entry into the group of nuclear suppliers, an action blocked by China.
Modi wrote on Twitter that he wished Biden success in starting his administration.
“President @ JoeBiden and I are committed to a rules-based international order. We hope to consolidate our strategic partnership to promote peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, ”he tweeted in Modi.
Modi also had a warm relationship with Trump.
Trump last year, weeks before the pandemic closed much of the planet, paid a two-day visit to India that included a tough rally at a 110,000-seat cricket stadium. Republican President hosted Modi in 2019 in the U.S., a visit that included a side trip to Houston which attracted about 50,000 people, many of whom came from the great Indian Indian diaspora
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Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma in New Delhi contributed to this report.