India, US raise toast to stronger ties

New Delhi, June 23

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden urged Pakistan to ensure that its territory was not used to launch extremist attacks, stated a joint statement issued after talks between the two leaders.

They (Modi and Biden) strongly condemn cross-border

terrorism and the use of terrorist proxies, and call on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks. India-US joint statement

“They strongly condemned cross-border terrorism and the use of terrorist proxies, and called on Pakistan to take immediate action to ensure that no territory under its control is used for launching terrorist attacks,” read the joint statement.

A couple of days after China blocked the listing of Mumbai attack mastermind Sajid Mir as a global terrorist, the two leaders reiterated the call for concerted action against all UN-listed terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, Daesh and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

Their observations on terrorism did not go unnoticed in the Pakistani media, which reported that Biden joined visiting PM Modi in warning Islamabad to crack down on extremists that target New Delhi.

Both leaders also expressed concern over coercive actions and rising tensions, and strongly opposed destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force. In this respect, they noted that India would host the Quad summit in 2024 which will be attended by Biden, Modi, besides the Prime Ministers of Australia and Japan. “This will be another opportunity to continue the dialogue and consolidate cooperation,” they said.

Biden also welcomed India’s candidature as a non-permanent member of the UNSC for the 2028-29 term. In 1996, India had lost the election to the UNSC in the absence of US support.

Significantly, on the bilateral front, Biden and PM noted “the ongoing discussion on developing next-generation small modular nuclear reactor technologies in a collaborative mode for the domestic market as well as for export”.

However, the US plan to build six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh did not appear to go beyond platitudes. In contrast, Russia is working on the fourth nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

They hailed as “trailblazing” the MoU between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and General Electric (GE) to manufacture F414 jet engines in India.

The joint statement said the US would begin the process to open two new consulates in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. India will take steps to operationalise its new consulate in Seattle later this year, and open two new consulates.