Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice-President Mike Pence held talks on Wednesday on a wide range of bilateral and global issues of mutual interests including defense and trade cooperation, ways to counter terrorism and the need for maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The two leaders had a warm meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Singapore. On bilateral issues, the two sides had brief discussions on trade-related matters.
Prime Minister Modi remarked in particular that in the last two years — since President Donald Trump has assumed office — American exports to India have grown by 50% and it is perhaps only country, perhaps the only one, of the top 10 countries with which the US has a trade deficit, where the deficit is actually reduced last year and is on course to further reduce this year.
Prime Minister Modi also discussed the import of oil and gas worth $4 billion from the US as the two leaders emphasised on the need to enhance energy cooperation.
Pence referred to the upcoming 10th anniversary of the deadly Mumbai terror attack on November 26 and hailed cooperation between the two countries on countering terrorism, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters after the meeting.
Modi thanked Pence and reminded him that in one way or other all the traces and all leads in the global terror attacks ultimately leads to a “single source and single place of origin”, without naming any country or organisation.
Modi conveyed to Pence that he hoped the Trump administration would recognise this as a new economic opportunity.
There was an appreciation for the recently held first-ever Ministerial 2+2 meeting between defense and foreign ministers of the two countries.
Pence recalled his meetings with Prime Minister Modi and acknowledged that India had made substantial progress economically as well as diplomatically in regional and international affairs under his leadership.
The Indo-Pacific region also come up for discussion and Prime Minister Modi referred to his June speech in Singapore at IISS Shangrila Dialogue in which he had outlined India’s vision on Indo-Pacific.
The prime minister conveyed to Pence that his vision of Indo-Pacific was gaining acceptability and that “we should utilise the forthcoming East Asia summit to further build on that,” amid China flexing its muscles in the East and South China Seas.
Pence felt that India’s contribution is important in maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific. He said the recent naval exercises held by the US, India, and Japan, is an “evidence of our commitment to ensuring free and open access to the seas all across this region.”The two sides, he said, would discuss “our ongoing effort to achieve the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”He thanked India in supporting the US on its North Korean pressure campaign. “We are grateful to India’s strong support of our pressure campaign,” Pence said.
“But we look forward to finding even more ways we can work together, even as the president moves toward another summit with Chairman Kim in the hope that we can finally bring a lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula,” he said.
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