Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with US President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday and the two leaders discussed the Covid-19 pandemic, tackling climate change and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
This was the first interaction between the two leaders after Democrat Biden won the US presidential election.
Modi tweeted:
The prime minister also conveyed his congratulations to US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“Her success is a matter of great pride and inspiration for members of the vibrant Indian-American community, who are a tremendous source of strength for Indo-US relations,” he said.
Biden’s transition team said in a statement that the President-elect noted he looks forward to working closely with Prime Minister Modi on shared global challenges, including containing Covid, launching the global economic recovery and strengthening democracy at home and abroad.
Since Biden’s win, foreign media has looked at what this could mean for India and Modi, who has often called incumbent president Donald Trump his “friend”.
Al-Jazeera
The Al-Jazeera piece looked at if the Biden-Harris administration will confront Modi on human rights. It quoted analysts as saying that the new US administration would not look away from human rights issues and the situation in Kashmir.
“Unlike Trump, who had no interest in human rights anywhere, Biden-Harris team is likely to bring up questions of human rights, minority rights and crushing of freedoms in Kashmir and elsewhere,” Al-Jazeera quoted Dibyesh Anand, professor of international relations at London’s University of Westminster, as saying.
Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal also noted that Biden will “probably be tougher than Trump on Indian human-rights problems”. In a piece last week, Sadanand Dhume wrote that as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as vice president, Biden has long championed stronger US-India ties.
“At the same time, Indians would be foolish to expect the free pass on human rights and democracy issued by the Trump administration to remain valid,” wrote Dhume.
Financial Times
Financial Times noted that “relations with the US will become more challenging” for Modi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and UK’s Boris Johnson. Trump turned a blind eye on policies seen as eroding India’s secular foundations, marginalising Muslims and cracking down on dissent, it said.
“The relationship could grow more fractious as Joe Biden has pledged a values-based foreign policy, which could put the spotlight on India’s record on human rights and religious freedoms. However, Indian officials note the bilateral relationship has steadily improved as the US looks to India to counter China.”
South China Morning Post
SCMP last week quoted analysts as saying that while shared concerns over China are likely to endure, US may turn up the heat on human rights under the Biden administration.
Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, told SCMP that “human rights concerns in countries like India had been neglected by the Trump administration”.
Ashley Tellis, a former adviser in the US Department of State, said in a dossier that “Biden would likely be different, bringing domestic Indian political developments under greater US scrutiny”.
The piece noted that Biden has said he was “disappointed” by the Modi government’s move to amend citizenship laws in the country and has also criticised the Modi government’s handling of Kashmir saying that “restrictions on dissent, such as preventing peaceful protests or the shutting or slowing of the internet weaken democracy”.
