Khushboo Singh
A senior US White House source informed reporters on the day of Vice President Joe Biden’s official state dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the US has allowed the joint manufacturing of GE’s F 414 jet engines in India, offering a “new” direction to ties between the two countries.
The person claimed that after almost seven years of negotiations, India will soon declare that it will be purchasing MQ 9B armed Sea Guardians.
“The nature, the depth, and the breadth of our deliverables for this is unprecedented,” said one of the officials who gave a preview of the meeting to the press.I believe the Indians are pleasantly surprised and pleased with the measures we’ve taken to eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to reaching this objective. One of the top administration officials stated, “I think we fully recognise that it is going to be necessary to follow through.“These jet engines will power India’s next-generation Tejas fighter planes. The current fleet of planes are powered by GE F404 engines, which are manufactured in India. GE and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) of India will jointly manufacture the F414s in India. The United States’ F/A-18 Super Hornets employ these engines.General Atomics’ MQ-9 Sea Guardian drones have been on India’s wishlist for years, and the country finally got its hands on two MQ-9A drones in 2020 under a leased, company-owned and -operated arrangement.
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Preferential trading benefits for Indian exports to the US under a scheme called the Generalised System of Preferences are expected to be reinstated in the joint statement that will be issued by the two sides. The Trump administration suspended the benefits in 2019 after it was unable to extract market access concessions from India. When it was in effect, this programme allowed over $6 billion worth of Indian imports into the United States duty-free.
After Biden’s meeting with Modi on Thursday morning, the two sides are set to announce a plethora of collaborative projects and agreements in a new atmosphere of cooperation that has been termed as “mature” by officials who were part of the negotiations.
A master ship repair agreement, under which US Navy vessels can be repaired at Indian shipyards, is also scheduled to be announced by the two leaders.The United States wants India to stop buying weapons from Russia. “India is making concerted efforts to reduce its reliance on military hardware made in Russia… That attempt of diversification is not unique to the United States. “Our allies and partners in France, the United Kingdom, Israel, and elsewhere are actively supporting efforts to secure India’s defence capabilities more generally,” one of the senior administration officials said.
It is anticipated that many technological fields will work together to improve areas such as crucial mineral supply chain management, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence.
Space is included in other agreements as well. Human spaceflight is an area where NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will collaborate.
On Wednesday night, before their scheduled discussions on Thursday, Prime Minister Modi and Vice President Biden enjoyed dinner together at the White House. Modi was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
In a break from tradition, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to accept questions during the news conference the two leaders will also address.
It was also stated by US authorities that Biden will bring up human rights, democracy, and press freedom with Modi, but will do so with “respect” and as a friend.
Later on Thursday, the Prime Minister will make his second address to a joint session of the United States Congress.
After that, he’ll join Vice President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at a state dinner, where many prominent members of the Indian American community are scheduled to be present.
