Modi for stronger ties with US!

[JayAtl]

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj are leading an initiative to improve and increase dialogue with the United States.

Both countries are working on a trip by Mr Modi to the US in September to meet with President Obama.

Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian affairs, who was in Delhi today, said "the US is keen to move ahead" after a fractious relationship over the last few months.

A strategic session between senior officials from both countries will be chaired by Ms Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry this summer in the US - dates are being worked out.

Conversations on commerce and economic relations are also expected to pick up soon.

Mr Modi, who led the BJP to an outsized victory in the national election, was denied a visa to the US in 2005 over communal riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. The US said its decision was based on a domestic law that bars entry by any foreign official seen as responsible for "severe violations of religious freedom".

A Supreme Court inquiry has found no evidence to merit the prosecution of Mr Modi over inaction alleged by detractors and some human rights activists.

In February, then US ambassador to India Nancy Powell met with Mr Modi in Gujarat, ending a decade-long US boycott of the BJP leader and bringing Washington's policy in line with major European powers that had shunned him after the riots, but warmed before the US to the man credited with tremendous economic growth in Gujarat.

In 2010, President Barack Obama declared that the US-Indian relationship would be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

But relations between the world's two largest democracies crashed after the arrest and subsequent strip-search of December of Devyani Khobragade, a junior Indian diplomat.

Ms Khobragade was accused of violating visa rules by underpaying a domestic helper.

The United States sees India as a natural ally on a range of issues and a potential counterbalance to China in Asia. Trade in goods was $63.7 billion last year, and US Vice President Joseph Biden last year called for that to grow to half a trillion dollars in five years.
PM and Sushma Swaraj Leading Initiative for Dialogue with US - NDTV

Imagine US shifting most of its trade from China to India! I believe Modi will bring about the necessary reforms to foster such a shift and US would like nothing than to move most of its trade to India and be less involved with China.

 

[LeveragedBuyout]

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj are leading an initiative to improve and increase dialogue with the United States.

Both countries are working on a trip by Mr Modi to the US in September to meet with President Obama.

Nisha Biswal, the US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian affairs, who was in Delhi today, said "the US is keen to move ahead" after a fractious relationship over the last few months.

A strategic session between senior officials from both countries will be chaired by Ms Swaraj and US Secretary of State John Kerry this summer in the US - dates are being worked out.

Conversations on commerce and economic relations are also expected to pick up soon.

Mr Modi, who led the BJP to an outsized victory in the national election, was denied a visa to the US in 2005 over communal riots in his home state of Gujarat in 2002. The US said its decision was based on a domestic law that bars entry by any foreign official seen as responsible for "severe violations of religious freedom".

A Supreme Court inquiry has found no evidence to merit the prosecution of Mr Modi over inaction alleged by detractors and some human rights activists.

In February, then US ambassador to India Nancy Powell met with Mr Modi in Gujarat, ending a decade-long US boycott of the BJP leader and bringing Washington's policy in line with major European powers that had shunned him after the riots, but warmed before the US to the man credited with tremendous economic growth in Gujarat.

In 2010, President Barack Obama declared that the US-Indian relationship would be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."

But relations between the world's two largest democracies crashed after the arrest and subsequent strip-search of December of Devyani Khobragade, a junior Indian diplomat.

Ms Khobragade was accused of violating visa rules by underpaying a domestic helper.

The United States sees India as a natural ally on a range of issues and a potential counterbalance to China in Asia. Trade in goods was $63.7 billion last year, and US Vice President Joseph Biden last year called for that to grow to half a trillion dollars in five years.
PM and Sushma Swaraj Leading Initiative for Dialogue with US - NDTV

Imagine US shifting most of its trade from China to India! I believe Modi will bring about the necessary reforms to foster such a shift and US would like nothing than to move most of its trade to India and be less involved with China.

While such a dramatic increase in trade with India would be excellent, I doubt it will be to the detriment of trade with China. As much as some of the younger Chinese users on PDF pray for the downfall of the US, China needs its trade with the US as much as the US needs trade with China (after all, China runs a massive trade surplus with the US). American trade with India will almost certainly focus on areas in which China is at a competitive disadvantage, e.g. sectors that depend on strong protection of intellectual property.

It will take years of reforms and investment before India is ready to compete with China as a manufacturing base.

 

[JayAtl]

While such a dramatic increase in trade with India would be excellent, I doubt it will be to the detriment of trade with China. As much as some of the younger Chinese users on PDF pray for the downfall of the US, China needs its trade with the US as much as the US needs trade with China (after all, China runs a massive trade surplus with the US). American trade with India will almost certainly focus on areas in which China is at a competitive disadvantage, e.g. sectors that depend on strong protection of intellectual property.

It will take years of reforms and investment before India is ready to compete with China as a manufacturing base.

5 years is not too long. I see shift starting by then....US private business rather do its business with democratic India and you are right that more meaningful relationship can be also be added on govt to govt level. Japan is also betting on this...there are major investments in the pipeline to shift away from China.