The TIP report ranks India as a Tier 2 country which means the government has not fully complied with USA standards but is making significant efforts to meet those standards.
Advertisement
Modi is visiting the U.S.at the invitation of President Obama.
Prime Minister Modi said that he will meet President Obama again at the G-20 meeting.
The US and India have signalled they are on course to formally approve the Paris climate agreement this year, boosting hopes it could come into force by 2017. He referred to Obama as “my close friend” and said the two nations will continue working “shoulder to shoulder”.
Following Tuesday’s talks, Obama will host Modi for lunch.
“Mr Modi sees a partnership with the U.S. as essential to make India into a leading global player”, Mr Pant said, while the prime minister “is now widely viewed in Washington as the person best placed to take the relationship forward”.
Soon after the visiting PM left for the United States, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement, saying that the outcome of Modi’s visit to Switzerland was positive, as New Delhi got the backing of Bern in its bid to become a member of the elite Group ahead of its crucial meeting.
On Monday, Modi was greeted at the airport by local members of the Indian community, laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
He also attended a meeting of heads of USA think tanks and a function at which some rare Indian artifacts were repatriated. “I am thankful to the President for Switzerland’s understanding and support for India’s membership of the NSG”, Modi said.
Modi “transcends the ancient and the modern”, Obama wrote in Time magazine. “So I don’t know whether or not the President will be making that specific request”, he said.
Read: Smart politics or true friendship?
The talks have hinged on New Delhi and Washington developing a new workaround to India’s civilian nuclear liability law considered a sizeable hurdle for the country’s nuclear-suitors. Indian Ambassador to the US Arun K Singh, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, US Ambassador to India Richard Verma and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal were also present on the occasion.
Modi, who arrived here from Qatar on Sunday night on the third leg of his five-nation tour, said that India and Switzerland also shared a commitment to reform worldwide institutions in line with current global realities.
On Wednesday, the Modi will address a joint session of the US Congress.
The meeting, Aghi said, is a “clarion call that relations between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy are stronger, more significant and more critical for the global economy than ever before”.
“So, in many ways you can say it is sort of a consolidation visit”, he added. “There is important business with respect to Pakistan, but we have much more, a whole global agenda with India, agenda that covers all kinds of issues”. They have planned to conclude contractual arrangements by June, 2017.
Still, U.S. -India trade has grown dramatically since the 2008 accord, expanding from $60 billion in 2009 to $107 billion in 2015. The U.S. and India share concern about the rise of China, although New Delhi steers clear of a formal alliance with Washington.
Advertisement
India’s burgeoning clean energy sector could also benefit from US$440 million of investment under two new initiatives aimed at providing one million households with power by 2020.
