China Was The Subtext In Modi’s Visit To Washington

The three-day state visit of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to the U.S. was marked by the Biden administration’s attempts to pull India closer regarding the so-called containment of China.

Modi is the third world leader who has been invited for a state visit during Joe Biden’s term in office thus far, after French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Analysts claim that this particular treatment is related to the Biden administration’s increasingly China-centric foreign policy and its attempts to “contain” the country’s rise, given outstanding tensions between India and China. Yoon Suk Yeol was explicitly asked to undertake anti-China measures during his visit.

Modi was received by Biden at the White House on June 22. In the joint statement, issued on Thursday, both countries claimed they are “among the closest partners in the world” and they have a “comprehensive global and strategic partnership.”

The statement outlines commitments to the “rule-based international order,” reforms in the UN, to the global fight against terrorism, for a secure and stable Afghanistan, and for democracy and human rights.

The visit was not without controversy. At least 75 U.S. legislators from the Democratic Party officially wrote to President Biden to raise the question of human rights and freedom of press with Modi. Several members of Congress also boycotted Modi’s address to the Congress and urged others to do the same over Modi government’s record on the treatment of religious minorities and other human rights.