pm modi russia visit 2023

"Will Delve Deeper Into Ukraine Resolution": Putin's Invite For PM Modi

"we will be glad to see our friend, mr prime minister modi, in russia," vladimir putin told s jaishankar, who is on a five-day official visit to the country..

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar meets Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday and held talks over a range of issues, including the war in Ukraine.

Mr Putin invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia next year.

"We will be glad to see our friend, Mr Prime Minister Modi, in Russia," Mr Putin told Mr Jaishankar, who is on a five-day official visit to the country.

Mr Jaishankar also met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov earlier on Wednesday.

The Russian President said he knows PM Modi is willing to do his outmost to resolve the Ukraine crisis peacefully. Mr Putin said Russia is willing to share information with India on how the Ukraine crisis can be resolved peacefully.

"Many times I advised him (PM Modi) on how things are going there (Ukraine) and I know he is willing to do his utmost so that the issue is resolved by peaceful means. So we will delve into that deeper now and we will give additional information to you," Mr Putin said during the meeting with Mr Jaishankar.

Honoured to call on President Vladimir Putin this evening. Conveyed the warm greetings of PM @narendramodi and handed over a personal message. Apprised President Putin of my discussions with Ministers Manturov and Lavrov. Appreciated his guidance on the further developments of... pic.twitter.com/iuC944fYHq — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 27, 2023

During a joint media appearance along with Mr Lavrov after their talks, Mr Jaishankar said he was confident that PM Modi and Mr Putin would meet for an annual summit next year. In his opening remarks earlier, Mr Jaishankar said that the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

The summit between PM Modi and Mr Putin is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two sides. So far, 21 annual summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The last summit took place in Delhi in December 2021.

Mr Putin said the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing, particularly on account of crude oil and high technology areas.

"Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," the Russian President said.

On Tuesday, Mr Jaishankar held a "comprehensive and productive" meeting with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on the bilateral economic cooperation during which they saw the signing of some "very important" agreements related to the construction of future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

The ties between India and Russia remained strong notwithstanding Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

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India's import of Russian crude oil has gone up significantly despite increasing disquiet over it in many Western countries.

With inputs from PTI

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Putin invites PM Modi to Russia, discusses Ukraine war, oil trade with Jaishankar

Foreign Minister Jaishankar was in Moscow on a five-day official visit

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia as the two sides gear up for annual summit next year.

The invitation for the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two countries was extended when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on the Russian president at the Kremlin. The upcoming summit will be the 21st such meeting between the two countries with the previous meeting being held in New Delhi in December 2021.

"We will be glad to see our friend, Mr. Prime Minister Modi in Russia," Putin told Jaishankar.

Jaishankar was in Moscow on a five-day official visit. He had earlier held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Putin said PM Modi is "willing to do his utmost" to resolve Russia-Ukraine crisis by "peaceful means".

"We know the stance of Prime Minister Modi and we mentioned that repeatedly on many occasions. Well, his attitude towards some complex developments including the flashpoints liek in Ukraine," Putin said.

"We are gratified to note that despite all the turmoil happening worldwide, the relationship with our true friend in Asia, India has been progressing incrementally," he added.

During a joint media appearance along with Lavrov after their talks, Jaishankar said the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

"Honoured to call on President Vladimir Putin this evening. Conveyed the warm greetings of PM @narendramodi and handed over a personal message. Apprised President Putin of my discussions with Ministers Manturov and Lavrov. Appreciated his guidance on the further developments of our ties," Jaishankar said in his post on X.

Putin said the trade turnover between the two countries are booming in the crude oil and high-tech sectors. "Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," he said.

New Delhi has significantly expanded the import of crude oil from Moscow despite pressure from the US and other Western countries amid the Ukraine war. India has not condemned Russia over Ukraine invasion but has urged Moscow and Kyiv to resolve the crisis through dialogue.

On Tuesday, Jaishankar and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov inked some "very important" deals on building new power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

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World Brief: India’s Top Diplomat Visits Russia

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India’s Top Diplomat Visits Russia

The trip closes out another year in which new delhi managed a balancing act between moscow and washington..

• Foreign & Public Diplomacy
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Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s trip to Russia , Israel ’s expansion of its ground campaign in central Gaza , and deadly storms in Australia .

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Russia hails relationship with india as jaishankar visits.

Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday. Despite Western attempts to isolate Russia in response to its war in Ukraine, India has dramatically increased its purchase of Russian oil since the conflict began.

“Everything is in your hands,” Putin said, according to the New York Times , “and I can say that we are successful because of your direct support.” Putin also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia. Ahead of the meeting, Jaishankar said the officials would “focus on bilateral cooperation in different spheres,” while Lavrov said that both countries are invested in “building an international political and economic system that would be open and fair for everyone.”

Following the discussions, Lavrov hailed India’s “responsible approach” to world affairs, including the war in Ukraine. Jaishankar, for his part, called Russia a “valued and time-tested” partner. New Delhi has historic diplomatic ties with Moscow and has long relied on imports of Russian arms. (During Jaishankar’s visit, the two countries reportedly made “tangible progress” on plans for the joint production of military equipment.)

On Tuesday, India and Russia also discussed the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, which is being built in southern India with assistance from Russia. The two countries came to an agreement on the future construction of power-generating units for the plant, which is expected to become fully operational in 2027 after years of construction.

Since the outset of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India has walked a tightrope with its partners, striving to keep Russia close while also bolstering its relationship with the United States. In 2023, this seemed to work: Modi was feted with a state visit at the White House in June and is ending the year with an invitation to visit the Kremlin.

However, the United States has also accused India of involvement in an assassination plot of a U.S. and Canadian citizen; the charges followed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations in September that India was behind the assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada. Modi has tried to downplay what this will mean for U.S.-India relations, telling the Financial Times that a “few incidents” would not derail the partnership.

Modi will be focused on something else in the new year in addition to the United States and Russia: India has a general election in 2024, when voters will decide whether they’re impressed by Modi’s balancing act abroad and his political performance at home.

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What We’re Following

Israel expands campaign in central Gaza. Israeli forces have expanded their ground campaign into central Gaza, including into urban refugee camps. The ground expansion follows heavy bombardment of the area. Meanwhile, Gaza’s main telecommunications provider has described a “complete interruption” of services in the territory.

The United States said on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan were meeting with Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs and the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, to discuss the possibility of shifting focus to particular Hamas targets and improving humanitarian conditions in Gaza, among other things.

The meetings come as Israel insists that the war will continue for months. Israel also announced Tuesday that it would no longer grant automatic visas to United Nations workers, saying that applications will be processed case-by-case. “For too long, international officials have been deflecting blame onto Israel to cover up the fact that they are covering up for Hamas,” said Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy.

On Wednesday, Tzivka Fohgel, a far-right Israeli lawmaker, said on an Israeli public radio station that Israel must establish settlements in northern Gaza to succeed against Hamas.

Deadly storms in Australia. At least 10 people were killed in storms that ravaged eastern Australia on Christmas and Boxing Day, including a 9-year-old child. Tens of thousands of people in the state of Queensland are still without power. The storms came more than a week after the dissipation of Cyclone Jasper, which caused major floods in parts of the state. Repairs from the cyclone and subsequent storms could cost billions of dollars.

Flooding and winds from the thunderstorms also hit the states of Victoria and New South Wales. Australia is currently experiencing an El Niño weather event, which is associated with cyclones and wildfires. Forecasts show that there will be more thunderstorms, although conditions are also expected to improve over the coming days. The U.N. has warned that environmental disasters are expected to get worse unless dramatic action is taken to tackle the climate crisis.

AstraZeneca buys Chinese firm. AstraZeneca, Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company, is buying Gracell Biotechnologies, a Chinese cancer therapy firm, for $1.2 billion. The move reflects a push further into cancer research and treatment, which already makes up roughly one-third of AstraZeneca’s business—as well as a push into China.

AstraZeneca is also striking deals with China-based firms: Before the purchase of Gracell, there was a deal to develop a weight-loss pill with Eccogene, a Chinese biotech company, in November. Over the summer, it was reported that AstraZeneca was considering listing its local business in China on the Shanghai or Hong Kong stock exchange, which the Guardian describes as a way “to avoid being caught up in the fallout” of U.S.-China tensions. The company did not comment on the speculation.

Odds and Ends

A 21-foot bronze statue of the singer Shakira was unveiled in her hometown of Barranquilla, Colombia, on Tuesday. The statue appears to show her shaking her hips. Shakira’s parents, William Mebarak and Nidia Ripoll, and the mayor of Barranquilla attended the unveiling on Tuesday, and Shakira posted a photo of her parents in front of the giant version of herself on her Instagram.

Emily Tamkin is a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews . She was a staff writer at  Foreign Policy from 2016-2018. Twitter:  @emilyctamkin

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'Will be glad to see our friend': Vladimir Putin invites PM Modi to visit Russia next year

President vladimir putin extended an invitation to indian prime minister narendra modi to visit russia next year as external affairs minister s jaishankar called on the russian leader at the kremlin.

• Updated Dec 28, 2023, 7:07 AM IST

• The invitation was extended during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar
• Jaishankar is currently on a five-day official visit to Russia
• Putin highlighted that the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing

President Vladimir Putin extended an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia next year as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on the Russian leader at the Kremlin.

"We will be glad to see our friend, Prime Minister Modi in Russia," Putin told Jaishankar, news agency PTI reported.

Jaishankar is currently on a five-day official visit to Russia. Prior to President Putin, he met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Jaishankar, during a joint media appearance along with Lavrov after their talks, said he was confident that Prime Minister Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year. In his opening remarks earlier, Jaishankar said that the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

The summit between the Prime Minister of India and the Russian President is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two sides.

"Honoured to call on President Vladimir Putin this evening. Conveyed the warm greetings of PM @narendramodi and handed over a personal message. Apprised President Putin of my discussions with Ministers Manturov and Lavrov. Appreciated his guidance on the further developments of our ties," Jaishankar said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

About 21 annual summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The last summit took place in New Delhi in December 2021.

A wide ranging and useful meeting with FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia. As strategic partners, discussed the international situation and contemporary issues. Exchanged views on Indo-Pacific, the Ukraine conflict, the Gaza situation , Afghanistan and Central Asia, BRICS, SCO, G20 and… pic.twitter.com/Uk9VTbZm5y — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 27, 2023

Meanwhile, Putin also highlighted that the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing, particularly on account of crude oil and high technology areas.

"Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," he said.

On Tuesday, Jaishankar held a "comprehensive and productive" meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on the bilateral economic cooperation during which they witnessed the signing of some "very important" agreements related to the construction of the future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

A comprehensive and productive meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov of Russia on our bilateral economic cooperation. Noted the significant progress in trade, finance, connectivity, energy, civil aviation and nuclear domains. Appreciated the greater focus on… pic.twitter.com/fPUyDqHL5X — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 26, 2023

(With inputs from PTI)

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Putin invites PM Modi to Russia, wishes 'success to friends in India' for 2024 polls

Russian president putin has extended an invitation to pm modi, requesting his visit to russia. during a joint media appearance, eam jaishankar expressed confidence in an annual modi-putin summit..

Listen to Story

During a joint media appearance along with Lavrov after their talks, Jaishankar said he was confident that Prime Minister Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year.

In his opening remarks earlier, Jaishankar said that the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

"We will be glad to see our friend, Mr. Prime Minister Modi in Russia," Putin told Jaishankar during their interaction.

"We know the position of Prime Minister Modi and have talked about this more than once. I am referring to his position, his attitude to complicated processes, including hot spots, the situation in Ukraine. I have repeatedly informed him about the situation around this conflict. I know about his striving to resolve this problem through peaceful means," Putin said.

"I ask you to give him my best wishes and please tell him that we are waiting for him in Russia," Putin told Jaishankar, adding, "Although I know that India next year will have a busy political schedule" (referring to the 2024 Lok Sabha Election).

The summit between PM Narendra Modi and Putin is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two sides.

Moscow: President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia next year as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on the Russian leader at the Kremlin."We will be glad to see our friend, Mr. Prime Minister Modi in Russia," Putin told Jaishankar.

Jaishankar, who is here on a five-day official visit to Russia, earlier met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

During a joint media appearance along with Lavrov after their talks, Jaishankar said he was confident that Prime Minister Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year. In his opening remarks earlier, Jaishankar said that the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

The summit between the prime minister of India and the Russian president is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two sides.

"Honoured to call on President Vladimir Putin this evening. Conveyed the warm greetings of PM @narendramodi and handed over a personal message. Apprised President Putin of my discussions with Ministers Manturov and Lavrov. Appreciated his guidance on the further developments of our ties," Jaishankar said in his post on X.

So far, 21 annual summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The last summit took place in New Delhi in December 2021.

Putin also said that the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing, particularly on account of crude oil and high technology areas.

"Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," he said.

On Tuesday, Jaishankar held a "comprehensive and productive" meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on the bilateral economic cooperation during which they witnessed the signing of some "very important" agreements related to the construction of the future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

The ties between India and Russia remained strong notwithstanding Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

India's import of Russian crude oil has gone up significantly despite increasing disquiet over it in many Western countries.

Latest News

Russia's Putin to Not Visit India for G20 Summit Next Month

Russia's Putin to Not Visit India for G20 Summit Next Month

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan September 16, 2022. Sputnik/Alexander Demyanchuk/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

(Reuters) -Russia will be represented by its foreign minister at the G20 summit in New Delhi, President Vladimir Putin told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a phone call on Monday where the two leaders also discussed bilateral ties.

The two leaders also spoke about the planned expansion of the BRICS group of emerging economies - comprising India, Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa - as well as a summit of the G20 club of major economies that New Delhi will host next month.

Last week, Modi and Putin both took part in the BRICS summit in South Africa, though the Russian leader attended only via video link because of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

The Kremlin, which strongly denies the ICC allegations, has said Putin would also not attend the G20 gathering in India.

Putin told Modi Russia would be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to a statement from the Indian government.

"While expressing an understanding for Russia's decision, PM thanked President Putin for Russia's consistent support to all initiatives under India's G20 Presidency," the Indian government said.

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Russia has sought to further strengthen already warm ties with India after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered sweeping Western sanctions on Moscow. India is a major buyer of Russian oil.

"Topical issues of Russian-Indian relations, which are progressively developing in the spirit of a particularly privileged strategic partnership, were considered (in the call)," the Kremlin said in a statement.

"The positive dynamics of trade and economic cooperation was affirmed," it added.

Both Russia and India launched lunar probes this month, but only the Indian one landed successfully on the moon while the Russian craft crashed.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Gareth Jones and Alex Richardson)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters .

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What’s behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit?

The US is seeking stronger ties with India, which it sees as a vital ally in efforts to contain China’s rise.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden is scheduled to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an official visit later this week, as the two countries strengthen their ties amid shared antipathy towards China’s growing influence.

The White House will hold a state dinner in Modi’s honour on June 22, a sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two powers who have stepped up cooperation in areas such as trade and arms sales.

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India, us agree on roadmap for defence industry cooperation, india’s pm narendra modi to address us congress, bbc gets india court summons in defamation case over modi film.

In a press release, the Biden administration said that a recent trip to New Delhi by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “underscored the dynamism of the US-India partnership in advance of Prime Minister Modi’s historic official state visit next week to the United States”.

But human rights groups say the celebratory dinner is a de facto endorsement of India’s far-right turn under Modi’s leadership — and undermines the Biden administration’s stated goal of emphasising human rights and democracy in its foreign policy.

During Modi’s tenure, India’s Muslims and other minorities have experienced an uptick in violence and repression as the government leans into a form of Hindu nationalism known as Hindutva . Modi has also been criticised for seeking to consolidate power and crack down on dissent.

“A state dinner is a special occasion; it’s not something that just any foreign leader receives,” Edward Mitchell, the deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera over a phone call.

“How can the White House honour a leader who is an open anti-Muslim bigot, a right-wing ideologue who censors journalists and turns a blind eye to lynchings? You can work with India and Modi without taking this extra step to celebrate him.”

Confronting China

While advocacy groups have called for greater scrutiny of India’s human rights record , foreign policy experts say the Biden administration is primarily interested in the country as a potential counterweight to China, which the US sees as its most formidable global competitor.

Sarang Shidore, Director of Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute, a US-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that he believes the US-India relationship will continue to grow as long as their shared concern over China remains in place.

“The United States does not conduct its foreign policy based on democracy and human rights. It conducts its foreign policy based on its interests, as all states do,” Shidore said.

China’s growing military power and assertive territorial claims have become a source of concern for nearby Asian countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and India. The US has worked to fashion alliances with many of those countries in an attempt to contain China’s expanding influence.

“No question, there is increased Chinese nationalism,” said Shidore. “And China sees India as an increasing challenge due to its relationship with the US.”

Expanding ties

That was not always the case. During the Cold War, India’s relations with the US were often frosty. The country had cultivated close ties with the USSR and helped spearhead the Non-Aligned Movement, an organisation of countries that rejected pressures to join either pro-US or pro-Soviet blocs.

For its part, the US was a key ally of Pakistan. And by the early 1970s, the administration of US President Richard Nixon started to build a cooperative relationship with China, as an attempt, in part, to place pressure on the USSR.

But as the Cold War ended and China’s economic rise became a preoccupation of US foreign policy, India — with its size and economic heft — started to be seen as a key regional ally.

Despite its improved ties with the US, however, India has continued to resist what it sees as a false choice between the US and countries like President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But as Russia wages war in Ukraine and Washington seeks to isolate Moscow economically and diplomatically, that balancing act has become more difficult for India to maintain.

While India has increased its purchase of weapons from countries such as France and the US and recently agreed on a roadmap to increase cooperation with the US defence industry, it remains the world’s largest importer of Russian arms.

India has also joined China in buying up Russian oil at discounted prices, while the US and the European Union angle to limit Russia’s power in the global energy market.

But Shidore said that India’s status as a central player in Washington’s Asia strategy gives it significant leverage . Its ties to Russia are not likely to get in the way of its relationship with the US, he explained.

“India has played this quite well, playing Russia and the US off each other, and has benefitted in the process,” he said. “A country like India, which has such a strong convergence with the US on China, can create major spaces where it will differ very strongly from the US and can ride that out.”

Consolidating control

While US relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel have come under political scrutiny in recent years, Modi’s trip to the US has been welcomed with bipartisan support. An a joint letter inviting Modi to address Congress during his visit, members of the US House of Representatives and Senate have hailed the visit as a sign of the “enduring friendship” between the two countries.

“During your address, you will have the opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face,” the letter reads.

However, Modi’s human rights record has not gone entirely unremarked. On Tuesday, a group of more than 70 lawmakers from the US House and Senate penned a letter to the Biden urging him to discuss concerns about religious freedom and journalistic expression in his talks with Modi.

The Muslim rights group CAIR, meanwhile, has issued a statement calling on the White House to drop its plans for a state dinner.

Modi’s high-profile reception in the US is a far cry from what he experienced before he was first elected prime minister in 2014. Prior to becoming India’s leader, Modi had been banned from entering the US due to allegations that he turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was the province’s chief minister.

The deadly 2002 riots were the subject of a BBC documentary that Modi tried to ban in January, invoking his emergency powers as prime minister. The rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch screened the documentary in Washington on Tuesday.

Human rights groups say the move to ban the film was representative of a larger effort under Modi to stifle dissent and exercise control over independent institutions. They also accuse his government of pursuing an agenda influenced by far-right Hindu nationalism.

In an annual report on religious freedom in May, the US State Department expressed concern about the situation in India, noting that there were “open calls for genocide against Muslims”, lynchings and “attacks on places of worship”.

In May, for the fourth year in a row, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom called on the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern”.

In some states controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), politicians who lean into violent anti-Muslim rhetoric face little reprimand. Some Hindu nationalist paramilitaries have also waged a campaign against interfaith marriages , which they portray as an effort to dilute the Hindu population and win converts to Islam through “love jihad”.

Shidore, however, said that Modi’s human rights record has been quickly “papered over” and is unlikely to prevent cooperation with the US, so long as China remains a serious global competitor.

“The United States”, he said, “has set human rights issues aside in order to strengthen ties”.

Modi State Visit Modi Promotes India to Congress After Meeting With Biden

Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized his country’s development and played up what he described as commonalities with the U.S. Earlier, he ducked a question about his government’s treatment of minorities.

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Modi Praises ‘Limitless’ Potential of U.S.-India Partnership

In a speech to congress, prime minister narendra modi of india promoted his nation’s development and said the relationship between his country and the united states was important for democracy’s future..

The U.S. is the oldest — and India, the largest — democracy. Our partnership augurs well for the future of democracy. [cheers] Together, we shall give a better future to the world and a better world to the future. Everyone wants to understand India’s development, democracy and diversity. Everyone wants to know what India is doing right and how. We are not only growing bigger, but we are also growing faster. When India grows, the whole world grows. I can go on and go on. But to summarize I would say: The scope of our cooperation is endless, the potential of our synergy is limitless and the chemistry of our relations is effortless.

Peter Baker

Biden welcomes India’s prime minister despite concerns over human rights.

President Biden emphasized common ground with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Thursday during a lavish state visit meant to bolster ties with the world’s most populous nation, while largely skirting points of friction over human rights and Russia’s war in Ukraine, at least in public.

After a pomp-filled, red-carpet arrival ceremony, Mr. Biden and Mr. Modi announced a range of initiatives to advance cooperation in technology, energy and military hardware but revealed no movement toward each other on the areas of disagreement that have strained the relationship in recent months, most especially Ukraine.

In a modest but notable breakthrough, however, Mr. Biden coaxed Mr. Modi into taking questions from reporters at a news conference, apparently the first time he has done so in his nearly decade-long tenure .

Here’s what else to know:

Challenged on his record on human rights and religious freedom, Mr. Modi insisted that democracy was “in India’s DNA” and denied that his government had engaged in discrimination based on race, faith or other such distinctions. Mr. Modi’s government has cracked down on dissent and hounded opponents in a way that has raised fears of an authoritarian turn not seen since India’s slip into dictatorship in the 1970s. In hosting Mr. Modi, Mr. Biden is pushing democracy concerns to the background .

The United States is trying to draw India closer , as the urgency for improved relations has intensified with Russia’s war on Ukraine. India has maintained military and economic relations with Russia, buying up Russian oil at a discount and staying away from backing United Nations resolutions that have condemned Russia’s aggression.

Mr. Modi gave an address to a joint session of Congress where he promoted his country’s development and played up what he described as common themes with the United States.

The two leaders announced initiatives advancing cooperation on telecommunications, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other areas. Mr. Modi agreed to sign the Artemis Accords — principles governing peaceful exploration of the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies — and they will announce a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024. The United States and India also will open additional consulates in each other’s country.

Tonight, the Bidens will host Mr. Modi for a state dinner on the South Lawn. The vegetarian menu — in accordance with Mr. Modi’s diet — includes an optional fish entree. The first course will be a marinated millet and grilled corn kernel salad with compressed watermelon and avocado sauce, followed by a main course of stuffed portobello mushrooms and creamy saffron-infused risotto.

Suhasini Raj

Indian television heaps praise on Modi during his trip.

“Super King of Diplomacy,” read the ticker placed in bold on top of one news channel. “Long live our friendship,” said another. A third declared, “The Boss in America.”

Mainstream Indian news channels — in Hindi, English and some regional languages — covered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reception in Washington with adulation, praising his diplomatic skills for millions of viewers before a crucial election year for him.

The visuals from Washington played into what Mr. Modi has already set as one of his main campaign themes: tying India’s rise as a major economic power with his rise as a global statesman.

“The scale, the splendor, the warmth,” one headline enthused. Others, such as “Modi’s breakthrough diplomacy” and “Watch history being made,” flooded Indians’ homes Thursday evening as Mr. Modi walked the red carpet to meet President Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden.

“Their body language reflected that they were incomplete without one another,” one news anchor said as visuals of the two leaders shaking hands played on the screen.

Mr. Modi has carefully crafted his relationship with traditional news outlets, using a mix of incentives and pressure tactics to get most of them on his side.

When uncomfortable issues arise — a state election loss, an ethnic war resulting in weeks of unrest and bloodshed in a northeastern state, a deadly three-way train crash — they are quick to deflect blame away from Mr. Modi.

And when a major moment like the state visit to Washington comes, they are happy to join in the cheerleading — a factor that, combined with how Mr. Modi’s party has mastered social media to take his messages viral, helps explain Mr. Modi’s talent for shaping politics to his benefit.

The coverage of Mr. Modi’s visit to the United States is a political boon, setting the agenda in his favor before he launches himself full-time into campaign mode for parliamentary elections next year.

While many channels showed the White House dinner menu ad nauseam, calling it “dinner for friendship,” some others waxed eloquent about the importance of the gifts Mr. Modi had carried for the Bidens. One anchor declared of a military deal between the two countries: “The biggest defense deal. The hearts of enemies will burn!”

And when, at his news conference with Mr. Biden, Mr. Modi skirted a question on India’s grim human rights record and suppression of free speech, one Hindi-language news anchor came to his rescue on her show, saying he had “very bravely” faced the question.

Lisa Friedman

The U.S. and India agree to speed deployment of electric buses.

The United States and India have long been at odds over the responsibility of different countries in tackling climate change. But as Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up a visit to Washington, he and President Biden cast their nations as partners in the fight.

As Mr. Biden declared climate change an “existential threat to humanity” during a joint news conference on Thursday, Mr. Modi pledged that India was working to become a green energy hub. Both governments also announced plans to help India increase the production of electric vehicles and meet its ambitious goal of installing 500 gigawatts of wind, solar and other renewable energy this decade.

The Biden administration did not announce any direct U.S. funding for India. But senior administration officials said the governments had agreed on a plan they believed would encourage banks to give loans for electric buses, which are seen as a high-risk investment in India.

India aims to deploy 50,000 public electric buses over the next five years. The plan includes establishing three months of delayed payments so that companies can secure loans at lower rates. Biden administration officials said the payment security plan will help underwrite at least 10,000 electric buses.

The United States and India also announced a separate investment plan that officials said will be joined by private companies and others that aims to lower the cost of capital and attract international private finance for large-scale renewable energy projects. The joint announcement billed it a “first of its kind, multibillion dollar” package but no specific dollar figure from the United States or any other country or organization was announced.

Katie Rogers

Guests just started arriving at the White House for the state dinner. Some of the more notable names include Huma Abedin, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton; the designer Reem Acra; Apple’s Tim Cook; Hunter and Ashley Biden; and the president’s brother, James.

Alex Travelli and Mujib Mashal

Reporting from New Delhi

One accomplishment of Modi’s visit? Greater defense cooperation between India and the U.S.

One of the biggest takeaways from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit might be that it has injected new momentum into defense cooperation between the United States and India, a slow and turbulent undertaking in the past.

The two sides announced a deal for coproduction in India of engines for fighter aircraft, a $3 billion purchase of about 30 American Reaper drones by India, and a road map to expand cooperation between the two countries’ defense industries. There were also agreements on intelligence sharing and on space-based, quantum and other strategic technologies.

For the Biden administration, helping India expand its defense manufacturing tracks with its efforts to further isolate Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine . India has long relied on Russia for a majority of its military equipment, and any increase in manufacturing capability at home or diversification of its arms sources would lessen its purchases from Russia.

For India, the United States’ latest efforts to improve defense ties is in line with its attempt to grow its domestic manufacturing and reduce its reliance on foreign partners.

India’s military forces have stuck to most of the same weapons systems that they began using during the Cold War. India was neutral but tended to side more closely with the Soviet Union. Indian officials have said their dependence on Russian weapons over the decades was simply out of necessity: The U.S. long held back on sales of military equipment to India, and that has only started to change over the past two decades. As a result, the Indian armed forces still use equipment of Soviet design and specifications. Parts cannot be swapped out, piecemeal, for American-standard weaponry. In some rare cases, as with India’s use of Lockheed’s C-130 Hercules transport plane, a stand-alone American platform can be soldered onto the existing framework. But for the most part, the systems are not interoperable.

Technical challenges aside, one thing that the defense road map seems to be addressing is the reluctance that has kept the world’s biggest two democracies from seeing eye-to-eye. They have a long history of disagreement, over matters including Pakistan, Iraq and United Nations votes. But tensions with China are bringing them to the same table, especially after Indian and Chinese troops started clashing along their Himalayan border in 2020.

Australia and Japan, the other members of the fledgling security bloc aimed at containing China around the “Indo-Pacific region” (as the Americans renamed it, to include the Indian Ocean, in 2018), have long-established military partnerships and even alliances with the United States.

The “ Roadmap for U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation ,” published earlier this month, illustrates the American goal of making India into something more like a formidable ally — and the Indian goal of beefing up its own capabilities. They find common cause in trying to “cooperatively produce the systems required to meet India’s military modernization objectives.”

But India’s ties with Russia are deep and cannot be undone quickly or with good will alone. Ajai Shukla, a retired colonel with the Indian Army who writes extensively about defense, is skeptical that America will find any durable role to play. He recalls how Alexander Kadakin, a Russian ambassador to India, liked to tell the story about visiting the Indian space centers and feeling more at home there than he did in Russia — because so many of the scientists were speaking Russian.

Karoun Demirjian

Modi waves to crowd in the third floor gallery, who stuck around to cheer him as he slowly makes his way toward the exit. Emphasis on slowly. He stopped for more autographs and pictures on the way out.

He texted from the speech to say that he “appreciated PM Modi’s unequivocal statement that India must be home to all faiths and celebrate all of them.” But he added that “American leaders need to also have the difficult conversations with Indian leaders about protecting minority rights, an open press and open internet.”

At the White House, some 400 guests are going to pass by reporters to attend the dinner. One of the guests is Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, who played a part in inviting Modi to give an address to Congress.

Here’s why Modi and many other Indian politicians stay single.

When President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, take their place on the red carpet at the White House on Thursday to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, there will be an asymmetry of sorts in the picture-perfect setting.

Mr. Modi will go stag.

While a family-centric image is often a political selling point in the United States, in India, many top leaders — the prime minister among them — are proudly unattached, to make a statement that no other commitment can come between them and the nation.

Work-life balance? Not for politicians in the world’s largest democracy, who stay busy attending to the needs of 1.4 billion people and compete with one another in their declarations of sleep deprivation. (Mr. Modi clocks only four hours of slumber a night, his aides say.)

“Every moment of my time, every pore of my body, is only for my countrymen,” the prime minister said in 2019 after winning re-election .

India may seem a strange place for expressions of solitary political devotion. Here, family comes before self and arranged marriages keep families together. Nearly a third of new members of Parliament have had a relative in elected office or a prominent party position, according to one study .

But in a country tired of official corruption, with lawmakers enriching themselves and their families and ensuring political futures for their children, many voters have come to believe that single politicians are less likely to steal.

“The very strong perception,” said Ajoy Bose, a journalist and author, “is that they have no personal interest. That they belong to the people.”

Modi is sticking around in the well of the chamber to shake hands and sign autographs after the speech. In the gaggle of lawmakers around him are Representatives Shri Thanedar, Democrat of Michigan who was born in India; Mike Lawler, Republican of New York; Brad Sherman, Democrat of California; and Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina. Modi seems to be enjoying the attention and is not in a rush to leave the chamber -- though his security detail is trying to gently nudge him out.

As Modi makes his way out of the House chamber, he is stopped by members asking him to autograph their printed copies of his remarks.

Alex Travelli

India’s economy is already a star, but Modi wants the attention of American businesses and investors.

NEW DELHI — The state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is full of eye-catching moments — practicing yoga outside the United Nations building in New York and addressing a joint session of Congress — that seem designed to burnish both India’s image on the world stage and his own image at home.

Apart from impressing voters back home and his fellow statesmen, Mr. Modi is hoping to get the attention of American businesses and investors.

India’s expanding economy is already in some ways a star. It displaced Britain as the world’s fifth biggest economy last year, and is on track to outpace both Germany and Japan in the decade ahead. The value of the companies listed on its stock markets are worth $3.3 trillion, more than ever before, and Mr. Modi’s government has tackled some challenges that have long stymied Indian growth, including rickety infrastructure and banks burdened with bad loans.

Foreign investors have taken notice, especially with much of the world’s economy looking shaky. A string of high-tech, high-value companies have flocked to India this year, with Apple and possibly Tesla making it known that they see a big future here.

But there are ominous signs, too. While foreign investment has been pouring in and the government has spent heavily on roads, energy and other public goods, private Indian investment has shrunk in proportion to the whole. And the incomes of average Indians have hardly budged in recent years, with most of the country still dependent on farming and many others working in jobs that barely keep them fed.

Indian and American policymakers and businessmen have been trying to devise ways that the United States could help India meet the moment — through a combination of trade, technology transfer, labor mobility and integration with global supply chains.

India’s trade with the United States is worth about $190 billion now, Atul Keshap, a former American ambassador to New Delhi who is president of the U.S.-India Business Council, said in an online discussion this week. It should soon be worth $500 billion, he argued, on par with the size of the U.S. trade relationships with only a few others: Canada, Mexico, the European Union and China.

The relationship could be boosted by the two countries’ altered relationships with China, not only in geopolitics, but also in civilian business and trade. American companies and political leaders are eyeing India — with its 1.4 billion people, same as China — as the sole country fit to shoulder some of the immense weight that China has carried in the world economy. “It’s a lot easier to invest $100 million in a country with 1.4 billion people than in a country with 40 million people,” said Cate Ambrose, chief executive of the Global Private Capital Association, an industry group focused on emerging markets.

With much of the world’s economy hindered by the war in Ukraine, inflation and other headwinds, the Indian economy’s power increasingly stands out. This week, Airbus, a European airplane-maker, signed deal to sell 500 aircraft to IndiGo, a low-cost Indian carrier founded in 2006. It is the kind of contract that American leaders dream of winning for the U.S. airplane giant Boeing.

Indians’ median incomes may be stagnant, even as gains made by wealthier people have brought the per capita income up to $1,200 a year. But the room for growth makes the country attractive as a consumer market. Last year, for example, 123 million passengers flew between India’s airports. The government’s goal is to reach 1 billion by 2040.

A new emphasis in the U.S.-India relationship is high-value manufacturing, and an initiative on emerging technologies has brought together government agencies from both countries to speed up cooperation on microchips, satellites and artificial intelligence. The White House argues that these projects, which sidestep bilateral trade negotiations, should help foster “resilient supply chains” for both countries.

Damien Cave

One of the things that makes Modi an interesting kind of popular leader in our current global moment might be his optimistic tone. He speaks of positive momentum, success and destiny more than flaws and enemies.

Mujib Mashal

As we wrote in our recent story about his role as a radio host, Modi has many avatars for keeping himself intimately omnipresent across India’s vastness — including that of a poet. He has written poetry in Gujarati, though he was reading a Hindi poem just now.

Congressional addresses often end with poetic language, but not usually poetry. After quoting the poem Amanda Gorman read at President Biden’s inauguration, Modi recited lines in Hindi that he penned himself.

On China, Modi has always been careful to avoid escalating tensions. When tensions at the India-China border escalated to bloody skirmishes, American diplomats were saying Modi’s government was not comfortable with U.S. officials mentioning China by name in statements made out of New Delhi.

A policy proposal from Modi, as he calls for the African Union to get full membership in the G20. (The speech so far has been big on promoting accomplishments but light on articulating demands for change.)

As Peter notes, the omissions of the words “Russia” and “China” show how carefully Modi is choosing his words as he supports the spirit of the U.S. position, while clearly signaling that India is not going to take a side in these geopolitical rivalries.

The technology transfer piece of the defense deal reflects not just improved U.S.-India ties, but also a major shift in how the United States works with allies in the Indo-Pacific. Australia is getting nuclear-powered subs from America. Japan is buying American Tomahawk missiles. It’s all part of a broader effort to balance China’s military growth.

U.S.-India defense relations have had to overcome a history of deep mistrust rooted in both bureaucracies. But it feels like the countries are turning a new page. The American defense secretary and national security adviser were both in New Delhi in the weeks before Modi’s visit to Washington.

India’s ties to Russia stretch decades, and India still relies on Russia for a majority of its military equipment. So India has been careful in calling for peace and dialogue while staying away from condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

In discussing Ukraine, Modi calls for respecting U.N. principles of sovereignty, earning a standing ovation. He also said “we all must do what we can to stop the bloodshed and human suffering.” However, India continues to buy a lot of oil from Russia, engaging in a practice that the United States argues fuels the Russian war machine.

Likewise, when he discusses “the dark clouds of coercion and confrontation” that are “casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific,” he leaves unstated who might be doing the coercing and confronting, never mentioning the word “China.”

When Modi mentions Ukraine, he shifts to passive construction. “With the Ukraine conflict, war has returned to Europe,” he said, without mentioning the word “Russia.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs

Reporting from Washington

State Dinners: Who Gets Them, Who Doesn’t and Why They Matter

As President Biden welcomed India’s prime minister to the White House , the two leaders were looking for more than a fine vegetarian meal and a night of glitzy entertainment.

Under the guise of pomp and pageantry, state visits are a chance for presidents to push foreign dignitaries to align with American interests. They can be a way to celebrate old, ironclad alliances . And with high-profile guest lists , multicourse meals and top-flight entertainment, they are much-coveted invites in Washington .

“These are not just dinners,” said Matthew Costello, a senior historian for the White House Historical Association. “There’s a lot more that goes into them in terms of planning, in terms of invitations, and a lot is geopolitics, a lot is foreign policy.”

When President Dwight D. Eisenhower invited Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union, to the White House in 1959, he was focused on thawing Cold War tensions after the launch of Sputnik. Before President Barack Obama hosted President Xi Jinping of China, the two countries negotiated for weeks over an arms control accord for cyberspace. President Ulysses S. Grant held the first state dinner for King David Kalakaua of Hawaii to strengthen trade.

The dinners can also provide a window into the regions the United States is prioritizing — and the ones being neglected.

European and Latin American nations have received the most state dinner invitations, while sub-Saharan African and Southeast Asian nations have received the fewest, according to a study by the Center for Global Development that tracked 40 years of state visits from the Carter to Obama administrations.

Out of 160 dinners, just 15 were with guests from sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.

“To be a foreign leader and not get the state dinner, you feel snubbed,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian. “It’s often the smaller countries in the world who don’t get them, but when you’re dealing with big power players like India, it’s a must.”

The invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was not without controversy. Mr. Biden has made the global struggle between democracy and autocracy a key part of his foreign policy, but Mr. Modi’s government has cracked down on dissent in ways that have raised fears of authoritarianism.

Still, the White House views the world’s most populous nation as a potentially welcome addition to its coalition against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as a crucial player in its growing economic competition with China.

The other nations whose leaders received the official invitation to dine with Mr. Biden — France and South Korea — have also been partners in Mr. Biden’s effort to confront Russia.

The state dinner can sometimes be a means of smoothing over hiccups among allies.

Mr. Biden hosted President Emmanuel Macron of France for the first state visit of his administration, more than a year after the two nations feuded over a deal to provide Australians with nuclear-powered submarines. Mr. Biden invited Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia, for a state visit after he canceled a trip there in May because of negotiations over the debt ceiling with congressional Republicans.

“There are multiple times we see presidents using these visits to not just describe immediate concerns, but also to talk through short-term and long-term solutions,” Mr. Costello said.

Domestic politics often hang over the dinner, as well.

Julianna Smoot, Mr. Obama’s social secretary from 2010 to 2011, said she made sure to invite the often-feuding majority and minority leaders of the Senate, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, to state dinners for a rare détente. Governors and mayors who had previously expressed support or campaigned for the president were likely to make the list. And the primary donors of presidential campaigns could expect an invitation, particularly if they had business connections to the visiting nation.

“They didn’t become donors in politics because they were slouches,” Ms. Smoot said. “A lot of them do international work and have an interest” in attending the dinner.

The prospect of strengthening political partnerships overseas and within U.S. borders was usually enough to get a quick response from invitees.

“You’re supposed to say yes,” Ms. Smoot said of responding to the invitations, “unless there’s a death in the family.”

Cheers and laughs for Modi’s hat tip to how well Indian American kids have done in successive national spelling bees.

Mentioning that the United States “has become one of our most important defense partners” gets a standing ovation. Not mentioned: India still buys weapons from Russia.

Liberal Democrats boycott Modi’s speech to Congress.

A half-dozen liberal House Democrats are boycotting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech to Congress on Thursday afternoon, in protest of what they criticize as his abysmal human rights record, particularly toward Muslim minority groups in India.

Four of the protesting members released a statement Thursday condemning the address as “an embarrassing spectacle,” arguing that by giving Mr. Modi such a rare platform, “Congress undermines its ability to be a credible advocate for the rights of religious minorities and journalists around the world.”

“We must never sacrifice human rights at the altar of political expediency,” Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Jamaal Bowman of New York wrote in the joint statement. They called on other members of Congress to join their protest and “stand in solidarity with the communities that have been harmed by Modi and his policies.”

But while other lawmakers have acknowledged and even criticized Mr. Modi for promoting antidemocratic and Hindu nationalist policies, and criticized him for failing to condemn violent assaults against minority groups, they have recoiled at the idea of boycotting a visit from such an economically and strategically important U.S. ally.

“We need to engage,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, a member of Indian descent who co-chairs the Congressional Caucus on India, arguing that India’s government leaders are “not going to be open and receptive to something that comes off as the West lecturing.”

“I think they’d be much more open to a dialogue as equals about the project of multiracial democracy,” he said.

The Biden administration has been pursuing closer ties with India, particularly as the United States’ standoffs with Russia and China intensify. India’s large economy and population make it an enticing partner for the United States, particularly as Washington tries to reduce its economic reliance on Beijing, and there is a concerted effort to woo New Delhi away from Russia, from which it continues to purchase weapons and oil , in order to help undermine Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

But the protesting lawmakers objected viscerally to the geopolitical justifications for Mr. Modi’s address. Pointing out that Mr. Modi once failed to get a U.S. visa because of his participation in deadly religious riots, they argued he should not be rewarded years later with a diplomatic red carpet.

“A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Democrat of New York, who is also boycotting Mr. Modi’s speech, wrote in a statement that she tweeted out Wednesday evening. “We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records — particularly for individuals whom our own State Department has concluded engaged in systematic human rights abuses of religious minorities and caste-oppressed communities.”

Sarah Maslin Nir

Indian Americans are divided over Modi’s visit.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India stressed inclusivity when he appeared before a yoga class on the lawn of the United Nations in Manhattan on Wednesday, trumpeting the Hindu discipline as an act of “unity.”

But Indian Americans appeared deeply divided about Mr. Modi’s visit.

“To host him for a state dinner and give a semblance of the two democracies — the world’s largest and the world’s oldest — of everything being well and good in both democracies, that is a charade,” said Sunita Viswanath, the executive director for Hindus for Human Rights, an organization founded as a resistance effort to Mr. Modi’s policies.

She spoke while standing in front of the White House at a protest on Thursday, urging President Biden to call out India’s anti-democratic shift, even while he woos its leader.

“If we are friends, the best kind of friend we can be is one that asks difficult questions — and tells the truth,” Ms. Viswanath said while holding a sign that said “real Hindus don’t lynch,” a reference to mob violence against Muslims in India that has surged under Mr. Modi’s regime.

Still others welcomed Mr. Modi’s visit to the United States — some literally: On Tuesday the mayor of Edison, N.J., Sam Joshi, greeted the prime minister personally at John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, part of an official welcoming delegation, and later did yoga with him.

In Manhattan, where the yoga session was held, several trucks emblazoned with questions about his human rights records and the hashtag #CrimeMinsterOfIndia drove through Times Square.

Images of the Modi truck at large. pic.twitter.com/q8QEOZZtNj — Aatish Taseer (@AatishTaseer) June 21, 2023

In an interview, Mr. Joshi focused on the bridge-building possibilities of the visit, which the mayor, who is of South Asian descent, said he was asked to join by the president.

“I know that this is a step toward the U.S. and India moving in a better direction,” he said on Thursday from Washington, where he was attending Mr. Modi’s congressional address. “That is the reason why I am here.”

A handful of members of Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York City, pledged to boycott the prime minister’s address to Congress, citing Mr. Modi’s troubled record on religious and press freedom.

“I encourage my colleagues who stand for pluralism, tolerance, and freedom of the press to join me in doing the same,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.

In New York City, three elected officials of South Asian decent called upon their colleagues to denounce the visit to the city.

“Modi is reshaping the nation from a secular democracy into a right-wing Hindu nationalist state,” New York City Council members Shekar Krishnan and Shahana Hanif and New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani wrote in joint statement. “Prime Minister Modi’s oppressive and unjust policies run counter to all of the values that New York City holds dear.”

On Friday, Mr. Modi’s itinerary called for him to speak to about 1,100 Indian Americans in Washington. “There are a large portion of us from all over U.S.A. who wanted to see him on this tour,” said Amitabh V.W. Mittal, the general secretary of the United States Indian Community Foundation, a nonpartisan organization created for the purpose of hosting the diaspora event.

Mr. Mittal dismissed criticism of the prime minister’s policies as unfair. Mr. Modi, he said, has championed innovation in the tech sector, added jobs and pushed to modernize the country’s infrastructure for all Indians regardless of sect.

Mr. Mittal said he welcomed other opinions, and that people of different faiths would be at the event his group was hosting. “Every good leader has good opposition,” Mr. Mittal said. “If he doesn’t have good opposition, that’s not good for democracy.”

What to know about the state of India’s democracy.

As President Biden rolls out the red carpet for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, he is embracing a country that is coming into its own on the global stage.

India is the world’s most populous nation, finally emerging from the shadows of its colonial past and the immediate burden of combating hunger and disease, and is now also the fifth-largest economy. It has a young work force, a strong tech industry, a growing consumer market and barely scratched potential as a manufacturing hub.

But all the talk of India’s rise masks a backsliding of its democratic traditions.

Expert opinion on the health of India’s democracy falls on a wide spectrum between outright alarm at an authoritarian turn, and belief that the concern is exaggerated given that India has pulled through such stresses on its constitutional democracy before.

Some democracy watchdogs have expressed worry. The way Mr. Modi has cracked down on dissent and free speech, and hounded his opponents, is often seen as comparable only to the 1970s Emergency, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi suspended democracy. India tops the global list of internet shutdowns. Opposition leaders are frequently raided by investigating agencies and bogged down in court cases.

Other experts, while acknowledging concerns, have said the cause for alarm is overstated. Rahul Verma, a fellow at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, argued in an academic article that India under Mr. Modi was a paradox of sorts, with “democratic erosion in certain areas such as civil liberties and protection of minorities, but deepening of democratic norms in many other areas.” For example, more people — particularly women — are voting and running for office.

What sets apart Mr. Modi’s systematic consolidation of power, much of it achieved not through dramatic power grabs but through more subtle and lasting means, is that it is entrenching Hindu supremacy in India’s constitutionally secular democracy.

Mr. Modi’s outsize influence over the arms of state has created widespread impunity for his right-wing vigilante supporters, who are doing the ground work of turning India into a Hindu-first nation. There is a perpetual sense of combustibility, with the country’s religious minority of more than 200 million non-Hindus, most of them Muslims, often at the receiving end.

Large-scale riots with mass casualties have become rarer than in the recent past, but hate is more easily spread through social media, where Mr. Modi’s party and support base have a dominant presence. Emboldened vigilantes have attacked mosques and churches, hounded interfaith couples and lynched men accused of transporting beef, and viral videos of the violence on social media have created a suffocating constancy to the tension.

When clashes happen, the state often doles out justice in a partisan manner. Police officers are often restrained in their actions against Hindu vigilantes. But the authorities — trailed by news cameras — are increasingly quick to exert swift, collective and extrajudicial punishment , particularly in the form of bulldozing homes, when the perpetrator of a crime is Muslim.

Happymon Jacob, who teaches foreign policy at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, said India had reacted angrily when the United States had raised human rights concerns, “sending a message to the U.S. that it needs to choose between preaching to India or engaging India.”

“I think the U.S. has realized that it would be sacrificing the geopolitical utility of the Indo-U.S. relationship if it decides to castigate India on human rights issues,” he said.

Karan Deep Singh contributed reporting.

A scorecard for Narendra Modi’s India.

After nearly a decade in power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi brings to Washington a record that has prompted pride and outrage.

Among fans, he is beloved for overseeing record growth, building roads and airports, and expanding access to sanitation, clean water , cooking fuel and digital payment systems. Critics, however, say Mr. Modi and his party have unleashed a dangerous wave of Hindu nationalism, muzzling critics and encouraging violent discrimination against minorities.

Mr. Modi’s supporters and detractors have ample evidence to back up their assessments. And, as is often the case with India, which now has the world’s largest population , a lot can be understood through numbers.

10 to 5: Under the Modi government, India has moved up five places in the global economic rankings, becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. It is projected to have the fastest growth of any major economy this year, continuing a trend that began under Mr. Modi’s predecessor.

74 to 148 : In nine years, according to the government, the number of airports in India has doubled.

382 to 693: The number of medical colleges in India has also soared. In February, the government said its universities could seat nearly 100,000 medical students each year, up from around 50,000 in 2014.

117.2 million : That would be the number of toilets that Mr. Modi says his government has installed under a program for rural sanitation.

8 billion: The transactions that took place on India’s new digital payments system in January alone. The rapid growth of the program , which began under Mr. Modi’s predecessor, has relied in large part on the government’s push to give every citizen a unique identification number, called the Aadhaar, which allows for payments small and large.

4: Governments run by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in four Indian states demolished dozens of properties belonging to Muslims after a series of protests last year. Mr. Modi, who started working with the B.J.P. in the 1970s, has done little if anything to discourage such efforts — or violence against Muslims by Hindu nationalists, or widespread anti-Muslim bias in India’s police forces. An independent study from 2019 found that one in two police officers felt that Muslims were “naturally prone” to crime.

2 million: In the state of Assam in northern India in 2019, two million people were told that they were considered stateless after a mass citizenship check . New York Times reporters interviewed several members of the tribunal making the decisions, and they said they had felt pressured by the government to declare Muslims to be noncitizens.

35: In August 2019, the Modi government stripped constitutional autonomy from India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, according to Human Rights Watch, at least 35 journalists in Kashmir have faced police interrogation, raids, threats, assault, restrictions on movement, or fabricated criminal cases for their reporting.

84: India shut down the internet at least 84 times in 2022, the highest number of any country for the fifth consecutive year. In many cases, the blackouts were targeted to locations with ethnic or religious violence that might undermine the image of a peaceful, prosperous India that Mr. Modi promotes — at home, and now in Washington.

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As Modi skips annual summit again, Jaishankar goes to Russia for talks

India and russia have an annual summit at the leaders’ level, where the indian prime minister and the russian president visit each other’s country every alternate year..

WITH PRIME Minister Narendra Modi skipping Russia for the annual summit for the second year in a row, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday reached Moscow on a five-day visit to meet the Russian leadership.

Shortly after his arrival, Jaishankar tweeted, “Arrived in Moscow. Look forward to my engagements.”

India and Russia have an annual summit at the leaders’ level, where the Indian Prime Minister and the Russian President visit each other’s country every alternate year. So far, 21 annual summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia.

An open and forward looking interaction with leading representatives of the Russian strategic community. Spoke about the importance of rebalancing and the emergence of multipolarity. Exchanged views on how India-Russia ties will develop in that framework. Also discussed… pic.twitter.com/4yfIh8bfhY — Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 25, 2023

The last summit was held on December 6, 2021 in New Delhi , during Russian President Vladimir Putin ’s visit.

After the war in Ukraine broke out, Modi did not travel to Russia for the annual summit last year, and Putin could not come for the G20 summit in Delhi in September this year.

While it was the Indian Prime Minister’s turn to visit Russia for the annual summit, the visit has not taken place this year as well. No reasons have been cited so far, and “scheduling” has been the key challenge, sources said.

Jaishankar, who started his diplomatic career from Russia, has now gone there to meet the Russian leaders. During his visit, he will also travel to St. Petersburg.

Signal to both sides

WHILE the PM skipping Russia — that is under US-led sanctions — is a signal to the West, Jaishankar’s trip is a message to Moscow that Delhi has not abandoned its traditional strategic partner.

“The time-tested India-Russia partnership has remained stable and resilient and continues to be characterized by the spirit of the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in New Delhi on Sunday.

The minister will meet Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov to discuss matters related to economic engagement. He will also hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov for discussion on bilateral, multilateral and international issues.

“Focusing on the strong people-to-people and cultural ties between our two countries, the External Affairs Minister’s programme will include engagements in Moscow and St. Petersburg,” the MEA said.

The two sides are expected to discuss various aspects of the bilateral relations, especially in areas of trade, energy, defence and connectivity.

India has a longstanding and wide-ranging cooperation with Russia in the field of defence. India-Russia military technical cooperation has evolved from a buyer-seller framework to one involving joint research, development and production of advanced defence technologies and systems.

India has a huge dependence on Russia for defence supplies — in the range of 60 to 70 per cent — although Delhi is trying to diversify its sources.

Since the Russia-Ukraine war, India has also been buying Russian oil at discounted prices, and that has helped it to cushion the inflationary pressure on the oil prices in the country.

While India has not yet explicitly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has condemned the Bucha massacre as well as expressed concern at the nuclear rhetoric by the Russian leaders.

Putin has been appreciative of the Indian position several times, and praised Modi’s stance — in the face of western pressure — publicly. Delhi has underlined that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. Modi had, in September last year, told Putin that “this is not the era of war”.

Russia is also an important partner for India in the area of peaceful use of nuclear energy. Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is a flagship project between India and Russia in this sphere. KNPP Units 1 & 2 have already become operational and construction of Units 3 & 4 and 5 & 6 is going on.

The cooperation in the field of peaceful uses of outer space dates back to about four decades. The two countries are cooperating closely under India’s first human spaceflight program “Gaganyaan”.

Officials said that all these issues are expected to be discussed during Jaishankar’s meetings.

• S. Jaishankar

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Indian diplomacy in 2023: How many countries PM Modi visited this year?

Pm modi prominent international visits in 2023 included that to united states, france, south africa and others..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on foreign visits to 11 countries in 2023. Explore the details of all the international engagements of the prime minister here.

PM Modi’s visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea & Australia (May 19 - May 25 )

PM Modi attended the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Japan's Hiroshima, marking India's consecutive invitations to the prestigious event.

Following the G7 Summit, PM Modi embarked on tour to Papua New Guinea, becoming the first visit by an Indian prime minister to this Indo-Pacific nation. During his visit to Papua New Guinea, PM Modi co-chaired the 3rd Summit of the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC III Summit).

Subsequently, PM Modi, responding to an invitation from Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese , travelled to Sydney. In Sydney, PM Modi interacted with the local Indian community at a spec event, alongside Australian PM Anthony Albanese. Moreover, during this community event, it was announced that the Harris Park area in Parramatta would be designated as ‘Little India’.

Also read: Why PM Kishida invited PM Modi to G7 Summit in Hiroshima? Japan’s envoy explains

PM Modi’s visit to USA & Egypt (Jun 20 - Jun 25)

In June PM Modi undertook state visit to United States. Invited by US president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, visit began in New York, where the prime minister led celebrations for the International Day of Yoga at the United Nations headquarters on June 21.

Following this, Modi travelled to Washington, receiving a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22. A high-level dialogue with Biden took place, and a state dinner hosted by Bidens honoured PM Modi that evening.

Also read: 2023 recap and 2024 planner

At the invitation of Congressional leaders, including speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate speaker Charles Schumer, PM Modi addressed a joint sitting of the US Congress on June 22. On June 23, Vice president Kamala Harris and secretary of state Antony Blinken jointly hosted a luncheon for PM Modi.

Beyond official engagements, Modi had curated interactions with CEOs, professionals, and stakeholders, along with meetings with the Indian diaspora.

Also read: How PM Modi's US State visit elevates India's global standing

Subsequently, Modi travelled to Cairo for a state visit to Egypt at the invitation of president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, who extended the invitation during his attendance at the Republic Day celebrations in January. In addition to talks with Sisi, Modi interacted with senior Egyptian dignitaries, prominent personalities, and the Indian community.

Also read: PM Modi meets Egyptian counterpart, top ministers; discusses trade ties

PM Modi’s visit to France & UAE (Jul 13 - Jul 15 )

PM Modi visited France as the chief guest at Bastille Day military parade, a signal honour last extended to a foreign leader in 2017 when former US president Donald Trump visited. A 269-member Indian tri-services contingent participated in the parade, accompanied by three French-origin Rafale combat jets from the Indian Air Force.

Formal talks between Macron and Modi took place, followed by a state banquet and a private dinner hosted by the French president. Modi also met with French counterpart Élisabeth Borne and the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly. Interactions with the Indian diaspora, CEOs of Indian and French companies, and prominent French personalities were part of the schedule.

Also read: What gifts did PM Modi present to France's leaders? Sitar, Silk fabric, Marble table, and more | Full List

From France, Modi traveled to Abu Dhabi in the UAE on July 15 for talks with president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, addressing global cooperation issues, especially in the context of the UAE's COP28 presidency and India's G20 presidency.

Also read- ‘Every Indian sees you as a true friend’: PM Modi to UAE president in Abu Dhabi

PM Modi’s visit to South Africa & Greece (Aug 22 - Aug 26 )

Next on the agenda was PM Modi's visit to South Africa where he attended BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.

Also read: PM Modi backs Brics expansion at summit, says should be done with consensus

In Greece, PM Modi's official visit marked the first by an Indian premier in 40 years, focusing on upgrading the relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Also read: Greece confers Grand Cross of the Order of Honour on PM Modi

PM Modi’s visit to Indonesia (Sep 6 - Sep 7 )

Moving on to September, PM Modi attended the 18th East Asia Summit and 20th ASEAN-Indian Summit at the invitation of Indonesian president Joko Widodo, just days before the G20 Summit in New Delhi.

Also read: In speeches at 2 summits in Jakarta, PM Modi delivers a clear message to China

PM Modi’s visit to Dubai (Nov 30 - Dec 1 )

In the later part of the year, PM Narendra Modi arrived in Dubai to take part in the World Climate Action Summit, a significant event held during the United Nations' Conference of the Parties on climate, known as COP28. The summit featured delegates from nearly 200 nations.

Also read: Giorgia Meloni takes selfie with PM Modi, Italian PM calls it a ‘Melodi’

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The Indian community in Papua New Guinea greets PM Modi

Modi, Sunak agree to work towards ‘ambitious' FTA during talks in Japan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart Rishi Sunak on Sunday reviewed the progress of the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations and agreed for their trade teams to continue at pace towards an “ambitious” deal, Downing Street said. Modi and Sunak met on the sidelines of the summit of the G7 advanced economies here in Hiroshima.

G7 offers Ukraine long-term support, Zelenskyy laments Bakhmut 'tragedy'

Leaders of the world's richest democracies sent strong messages of sustained support for Ukraine on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Russia's claims to have finally taken the eastern city of Bakhmut. Speaking ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, Zelenskyy told reporters the battered eastern city, the focus of fighting in recent months, was destroyed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy huddled with some of his biggest backers in Hiroshima on Sunday, building momentum for his country's war effort even as Russia claimed a symbolic victory on the battlefield. The Ukrainian leader's in-person appearance in his trademark olive drab during the final day of the Group of Seven summit underscored the centrality of the war for the bloc of rich democracies. It also stole much of the limelight from other priorities, including security challenges in Asia and outreach to the developing world, that the leaders focused on at the three-day gathering.

It's PM Modi, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy all over Japanese newspapers today

The Japanese newspapers on Sunday were flooded with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the G7 Summit. They also extensively covered Zelenskyy's visit to Hiroshima amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine that started on February 24 last year.

Japan's Kishida says 'significant' G7 showed solidarity with guest Zelenskyy

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Sunday it was "significant" that the Group of Seven (G7) nations showed solidarity in their intention to uphold international law and order, during summit at which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a guest.

'We must respect UN Charter, international law and sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations'

In an address at a G7 session in Hiroshima, PM Modi said all countries must respect the UN Charter, international law and sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and called for raising voices together against unilateral attempts to change the status quo.

Need to raise voice together against unilateral attempts to change status quo: PM Modi at G7 Summit

The current situation in Ukraine is an issue of humanity and of human values and not about politics or economy, PM Modi said on Sunday, asserting that dialogue and diplomacy are the only way to resolve the conflict. In an address at a G7 session in Hiroshima, Modi said all countries must respect the UN Charter, international law and sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations and called for raising voices together against unilateral attempts to change the status quo.

'You are too popular...' US President's praise for PM Modi during Quad Summit

Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi very popular, United States President said that he is running out of tickets for the Indian leader's event being organized during his (PM Modi's) visit to the US next month, according to the sources. On Saturday, during the Quad meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, President Biden came up to PM Modi and told that he's been facing a challenge with a deluge of requests from prominent citizens to attend the program PM Modi.

India has always been of opinion that any tension, any dispute should be resolved peacefully, through dialogue.

Narendra Modi, PM

'Ukraine war an issue of humanity'

I believe it is an issue of humanity, an issue of human values: PM Modi says on situation in Ukraine.

'Global peace, stability our common objective'

PM Narendra Modi has said at a G7 session that "global peace, stability and prosperity is our common objective".

'PM Modi made significant impact on everything'

"You have made a significant impact on everything, including what we are doing in QUAD," US President tells PM Modi.

I do not consider current situation to be an issue of politics or economy: PM Modi on Ukraine conflict at G7 summit

'I should take your autograph...' US President Joe Biden to PM Modi

US President Joe Biden on Saturday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his autograph after discovering how he has been managing large crowds, according to sources. Yesterday during the Quad meeting, President Joe Biden came up to PM Modi and told that he's been facing a challenge with a deluge of requests from prominent citizens to attend the program of PM Modi.

G7 Summit: PM Modi holds meeting with Brazil's President Silva

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held bilateral talks with Brazilian President Lula da Silva on Sunday on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

PM wearing a jacket made of recycled material at the G7 summit.

Need to increase scope of discussion, PM Modi on climate change

Underling that climate change, environmental security and energy security are among the biggest challenges, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that there is a need to increase the scope of discussion and change behaviour to solve these problems."Today, we stand at a critical juncture in history. We have to listen to the call of the earth. We have to change ourselves, and our behaviour accordingly,” Prime Minister Modi said while addressing a G7 session here.Modi said one of the obstacles to facing these challenges is that people look at climate change only from the perspective of energy and added that the scope of discussion should be increased.He said India has created institutional solutions like Mission LiFE, International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Mission Hydrogen, Biofuel Alliance, Big Cat Alliance for the whole world."We are moving fast towards our goal of Net Zero by 2070. Our vast railway network has decided to reach Net Zero by 2030. At present, the installed capacity of renewable energy in India is about 175 GW. By 2030 it will reach 500 GW,” he said.Noting that the earth has been given the status of the mother in Indian civilization, he said, "We consider all our efforts as our responsibility to the earth.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will leave the G7 summit in Hiroshima early and return home to deal with devastating floods that have killed 14 people, a diplomatic source said.

The G7 leaders issued a statement calling on China "not to conduct interference activities" and expressed concerns about alleged human rights abuses in the country, particularly in the far-western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Prime Minister emphasized the importance of consolidating Quad’s constructive agenda and delivering tangible outcomes for the region.

The Leaders agreed to continue their regular dialogue and maintain the momentum of Quad engagement. In this context, Prime Minister invited Quad leaders to India for the next Quad Summit in 2024.

To strengthen the resilience and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific the Leaders announced following initiatives which would complement the development priorities of the region:

A. Clean Energy Supply Chains Initiative which would facilitate research and development and support the Indo-Pacific’s energy transition. In addition, the Quad Principles of Clean Energy Supply Chains were approved to guide engagement with the region on clean energy supply chain development.B. ‘Quad Infrastructure Fellowships Programme’ to support policy makers and practitioners in the region to design, build and manage sustainable and viable infrastructure in their countries.C. ‘Partnership for Cable Connectivity and Resilience’ to leverage Quad’s collective expertise in design, manufacturing, laying and maintenance of undersea cables to secure and diversify these critical networks.D. Quad support for a small-scale ORAN deployment in Palau, the first in the Pacific region. They also released the ORAN Security Report to support industry investment in open, interoperable and secure telecom platforms.E. Quad Investors’ Network has been launched as a private sector led platform to facilitate investments in strategic technologies.F. The leaders welcomed progress of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, announced at their summit last year in Tokyo. They noted that data sharing with partners in South East and the Pacific under this programme is underway and would soon include partners in the Indian Ocean Region. The Prime Minister highlighted how India’s approach to demand-driven development cooperation with the region was contributing to these efforts.

Quad Leaders’ Vision Statement, "Enduring Partners for the Indo-Pacific” released which articulates their principled approach.

Guided by their vision for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, they reiterated the importance of upholding the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful resolution of disputes.

'Free & fair Indo-Pacific': Quad leaders talk tough with eye on China

The Quad comprising India, Australia, Japan and the US on Saturday expressed their shared vision of a region where no country dominates and all are free from coercion."We strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change status quo by force or coercion," read a joint statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, Japan's Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden after their third in-person Quad Leaders’ Summit.During the meeting of the group of four countries held on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the Quad leaders also unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and Pathankot attack.

Ukraine conflict must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy: Quad

The Quad leaders have unequivocally condemn terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations including cross-border terrorism.

In a joint statement, they reiterate their condemnation of terrorist attacks including the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and in Pathankot.

First day of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Hiroshima that included a slew of bilateral meetings followed by a G7 outreach summit by member states and a Quad meeting.

Foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said the meeting (between PM Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy) was sought by Zelenskyy.

The meeting lasted for about 30 minutes. PM Modi conveyed to Zelenskyy that India and the PM himself would do everything in their power to find a resolution to this conflict through dialogue and diplomacy

Productive discussion with UK PM Rishi Sunak on the sidelines of the Hiroshima G7 Summit.

Narendra Modi

"PM Modi was invited by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Ukraine," confirms foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra during a press briefing

PM Modi had bilateral meetings followed by a G7 outreach summit by G7 members state and Quad meeting: Foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra

We remain committed to strengthening cooperation in Indian Ocean region: Quad leaders' joint statement

PM Modi Russia visit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Vladivostok, the far-east region of Russia. The Prime Minister landed in Vladivostok on September 4, as a part of his two-day visit to Russia from September 4-6, 2019.

PM Modi was greeted by Vladimir Putin at Vladivostok and the Russian President, in a special gesture, also accompanied Modi to the Zvezda shipyard in Vladivostok. Following the shipyard visit, both the leaders participated in the 20th India-Russia Annual Summit. While addressing the press after the summit, PM Modi said that both India and Russia are against outside influence in the internal matters of any nation. 

PM Modi is scheduled to attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok tomorrow, as the Chief Guest of the forum. 

PM Modi Russia visit: Ten Key Points

1. First Indian Prime Minister to visit Russian Far East Region

PM Modi with his visit to Vladivostok has become the first Indian prime minister to visit the Russian Far East Region. The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok along with other foreign leaders. Speaking on his visit, the Prime Minister said that his visit to Russia will give a "new energy and a new impetus" to relations between the two countries.

2. Siberian cranes-Gujarat link

PM Modi stated in a press interview that nature itself connects India to the far-east. The Prime Minister referred to the "Siberian cranes-Gujarat" link and pointed out that every December, Siberian cranes fly to his native state Gujarat, which is like a tourist destination for them and many Indians go to the Far East.

3. PM Modi’s visit to Zvezda shipyard

4. 20th India-Russia Annual Summit

Post the Zvezda shipyard visit, PM Modi and Vladimir Putin held the 20th India-Russia Annual Summit. The summit was held on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum. The annual summit  covered a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest including the situation in the Gulf region, the Afghan peace process and the possibilities to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in the oil and gas sector.

5. Eastern Economic Forum

PM Modi is the chief guest of the 5th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), which is currently underway in Vladivostok. Russia has hosted the Eastern Economic Forum since 2015 to boost partnerships with Asian countries. The 5th Eastern Economic Forum is expected to focus on the development of businesses and investment opportunities in the Russian Far East Region. The forum presents a great opportunity to develop close and mutually beneficial cooperation between India and Russia in the region.

Speaking on Putin’s invitation to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, PM Modi said that the invitation for Eastern Economic Forum is a matter of great respect for him. The Prime Minister said that it is a historical occasion to give a new dimension to the support between the two countries.

6. India- Russia exchange 25 agreements

India and Russia exchanged 25 agreements in the field of defence, trade, industrial cooperation, investments, connectivity corridors and energy. The agreements were exchanged in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir.

7. “Russia is an integral friend,” says PM Modi

8. PM Modi to be awarded Russia’s highest civilian honour

PM Modi expressed his gratitude to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia for deciding to honour him with Russia's highest civilian award. The Indian prime minister will be awarded the ‘Order of St Andrew the Apostle’ in April for his exceptional services in promoting bilateral ties between India and Russia. 

9. India and Russia agree to make AK-203 rifles

India and Russia also agreed to the proposal of Russia building 20 more nuclear power plants in India.

10. Full-fledged maritime route proposed between Chennai and Vladivostok

PM Modi stated that a proposal has been made to have a full fledged maritime route, which will link Chennai in India to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East region.

Why is PM Modi visiting Russian Far East region?

PM Modi’s visit to the Far East Region of Russia aims to diversify and further strengthen the bonds of the two nation’s robust bilateral relations. PM Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to ever visit the region.

The key objective behind PM Modi’s visit is to participate in the 5th Eastern Economic Forum as the Chief Guest at the invitation of the Russian President and to conduct the 20th India-Russia Annual Summit.

India-Russia Bilateral Relations

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In Modi’s India, opponents and journalists feel the squeeze ahead of election

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are increasingly wielding strong-arm tactics to subdue political opponents and critics of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party ahead of the nationwide elections that begin this week.

A decade into power, and on the cusp of securing five more years, the Modi government is reversing India’s decades-long commitment to multiparty democracy and secularism.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has brought corruption charges against many officials from its main rival, the Congress Party, but few convictions. Dozens of politicians from other opposition parties are under investigation or in jail. And just last month, Modi’s government froze the Congress Party’s bank accounts for what it said was nonpayment of taxes.

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The Modi administration says that the country’s investigating agencies are independent and that its democratic institutions are robust, pointing to high voter turnout in recent elections that have delivered Modi’s party a clear mandate.

Yet civil liberties are under attack. Peaceful protests have been crushed with force. A once-free and diverse press is threatened. Violence is on the rise against the Muslim minority. And the country’s judiciary increasingly aligns with the executive branch.

To better understand how Modi is reshaping India and what is at stake in an election that begins Friday and runs through June 1, the Associated Press spoke with a lawyer, a journalist, and an opposition politician.

Here are their stories:

DEFENDING MODI’S CRITICS

Mihir Desai has fought for the civil liberties and human rights of India’s most disadvantaged communities, such as the poor and Muslims, for nearly four decades.

The 65-year-old lawyer from India’s financial capital Mumbai is now working on one of his — and the country’s — most high-profile cases: defending a dozen political activists, journalists and lawyers jailed in 2018 on accusations of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The accusations, he says, are baseless — just one of the government’s all-too-frequent and audacious efforts to silence critics.

One of the defendants in the case, a Jesuit priest and longtime civil rights activist, died at age 84 after about nine months in custody. The other defendants remain in jail, charged under anti-terror laws that rarely result in convictions.

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“First, authorities came up with a theory that they planned to kill Modi. Now they are being accused of being terrorist sympathizers,” he said.

The point of it all, Desai believes, is to send a message to any would-be critics.

According to digital forensics experts at U.S.-based Arsenal Consulting, the Indian government hacked into the computers of some of the accused and planted files that were later used as evidence against them.

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To Desai, this is proof that the Modi government has “weaponized” the country’s once-independent investigative agencies.

He sees threats to Indian democracy all around him. Last year, the government removed the country’s chief justice as one of three people who appoint commissioners overseeing elections; Modi and the opposition leader in parliament are the others. Now, one of Modi’s Cabinet ministers has a vote in the process, giving the ruling party a 2-1 majority.

“It’s a death knell to free and fair elections,” Desai said.

A POLITICIAN’S PLIGHT IN KASHMIR

Waheed-Ur-Rehman Para, 35, was long seen as an ally in the Indian government’s interests in Kashmir. He worked with young people in the majority-Muslim, semiautonomous region and preached to them about the benefits of embracing India and its democratic institutions — versus seeking independence, or a merger with Pakistan.

Beginning in 2018, though, Para was viewed with suspicion by the Modi government over alleged connections to anti-India separatists. Since then, he has been jailed twice : in 2019 on suspicion that he and other political opponents could stoke unrest; and in 2020 on charges of supporting militant groups — charges he denies.

The accusations stunned Para, whose People’s Democratic Party once ruled Kashmir in an alliance with Modi’s party.

But he believes the motivation was clear: “I was arrested to forcibly endorse the government’s 2019 decision,” he said, referring to a clampdown on the resistance in Kashmir after the elimination of the region’s semiautonomous status.

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Modi’s administration says the move was necessary to fully integrate the disputed region with India and foster economic development there.

After his 2020 arrest, Para remained in jail for nearly two years, often in solitary confinement, and was subjected to “abusive interrogations,’’ according to U.N. experts.

“My crime was that I wanted the integration of Kashmir, not through the barrel of the gun,” said Para, who is seeking to represent Kashmir’s main city in the upcoming election.

Para sees his own plight within the larger context of the Modi government’s effort to silence perceived opponents, especially those with ties to Muslims, who make up 14% of India’s population.

“It is a huge ethical question … that the largest democracy in the world is not able to assimilate, or offer dignity to, the smallest pocket of its people,” he said.

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The campaign to turn once-secular India into a Hindu republic may help Modi win elections in the short term, Para said, but something much bigger will be lost.

“It risks the whole idea of this country’s diversity,” he said.

A JOURNALIST FIGHTS CHARGES

In October 2020, independent journalist Sidhique Kappan was arrested while trying to report on a government clampdown in the northern Uttar Pradesh state ruled by Modi’s party.

For days, authorities had been struggling to contain protests and outcry over a gruesome rape case. Those accused of the crime were four upper caste Hindu men, while the victim belonged to the Dalit community, the lowest rung of India’s caste hierarchy.

Kappan, a 44-year-old Muslim, was detained and jailed before he even reached the crime site, accused of intending to incite violence. After two years in jail, his case reached India’s top court in 2022. Although he was quickly granted bail, the case against him is ongoing.

Kappan’s case is not unique, and he says it highlights how India is becoming increasingly unsafe for journalists. Under intense pressure from the state, many Indian news organizations have become more pliant and supportive of government policies,

“Those who have tried to be independent have come under relentless attack by the government,” he said.

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Foreign journalists are banned from reporting in Kashmir, for example. Same goes for India’s northeast Manipur state, which has been embroiled in ethnic violence for almost a year.

Television news is increasingly dominated by stations touting the government’s Hindu nationalist agenda, such as a new citizenship law that excludes Muslim migrants. Independent TV stations have been temporarily shut down, and newspapers that run articles critical of Modi’s agenda find that any advertising from the government — an important source of revenue — quickly dries up.

Last year, the India offices of the BBC were raided on tax irregularities just days after it aired a documentary critical of Modi.

The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders ranks India 161st on a worldwide list of countries’ press freedoms.

Kappan said he has barely been able to report news since his arrest. The trial keeps him busy, requiring him to travel to a court hundreds of miles away every other week. The time and money required for his trial have made it difficult for him to support his wife and three children, Kappan said.

“It is affecting their education, their mental health,” he said.

Hussain and Saaliq write for the Associated Press. AP journalists Piyush Nagpal and Subramoney Iyer in Kerala, India, contributed to this report.

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Elon Musk to visit India for meeting with PM Modi

E lon Musk has announced on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that he will visit India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi without giving a date.

The Tesla boss is expected to announce major investment plans in the country soon.

Last month, India cut import taxes on electric vehicles (EV) for global carmakers which commit to investing $500m (£399m) and starting local production within three years.

In 2021, the Tesla boss said that India's high import duties had prevented the firm from launching its cars in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Mr Musk wrote in a post on Wednesday : "Looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India!"

A senior Indian government official told the BBC that the meeting is scheduled for the last week of April and will take place at Mr Modi’s official residence in New Delhi.

The BBC understands that Tesla’s plans for starting manufacturing in India will feature in the talks.

Mr Musk's visit comes just as the country begins voting in marathon, six-week-long elections on 19 April.

Mr Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win a third term in power.

A Tesla investment announcement during the election would bolster the business-friendly credentials of Mr Modi, who has courted foreign companies to set up manufacturing operations in India and create jobs.

The two men met last June in New York when the technology multi-billionaire said Mr Modi had been "pushing us to make significant investments in India, which is something that we intend to do".

Tesla's plans to move into India comes at a time when the company is battling weakening sales in the US and China.

Deliveries slid sharply in the first three months of this year as Tesla grappled with a fire at its European factory, global shipping disruption and growing competition.

Tesla has cut prices repeatedly in response to increased competition from rivals such as BYD but demand in key markets like China has fallen.

Tesla's shares have lost almost a third of their value since the start of this year.

India overtook the UK in 2022 to become the world's fifth-largest economy, and grew by 8.4% in the December quarter , helped by a surging manufacturing sector.

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