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Reporting by Steve Holland, Simon Lewis and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Doina Chiacu, David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Don Durfee and Grant McCool

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Jeff Mason is a White House Correspondent for Reuters. He has covered the presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden and the presidential campaigns of Biden, Trump, Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. He served as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2016-2017, leading the press corps in advocating for press freedom in the early days of the Trump administration. His and the WHCA's work was recognized with Deutsche Welle's "Freedom of Speech Award." Jeff has asked pointed questions of domestic and foreign leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. He is a winner of the WHCA's “Excellence in Presidential News Coverage Under Deadline Pressure" award and co-winner of the Association for Business Journalists' "Breaking News" award. Jeff began his career in Frankfurt, Germany as a business reporter before being posted to Brussels, Belgium, where he covered the European Union. Jeff appears regularly on television and radio and teaches political journalism at Georgetown University. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former Fulbright scholar.

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Modi’s U.S. visit sends a big, if quiet, signal to China

Though the White House downplays it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swing through Washington is about enhancing a partnership that includes stopping Beijing’s aggressive expansion

Joint statements issued by the United States and India over the last several years have condemned North Korea’s missile tests, called for the Taliban to respect human rights and appealed for an end to the violence in Myanmar. But never has there been an outright mention of India’s primary adversary: China.

Yet it is China in recent years that has supplanted Pakistan as India’s main security threat. While Delhi may wish to minimize accusations that can heighten tensions with leadership in Beijing, China’s clashes with India along its border have turned the world’s two most populous countries into rivals again in the Indo-Pacific.

It is the resurgence of that rivalry — after decades of détente — that has made for a convergence of strategic interests between the United States and India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Washington this week, with the full pomp and circumstance of a state visit that comes on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s tense trip to China , followed by President Biden’s comments on Tuesday calling Xi Jinping a “dictator.”

Neither Biden nor Modi would frame their engagement as primarily being about containing the China challenge, but the subtext is plain. Rather, officials say, it is about lifting up a rising power — the world’s largest democracy, if an imperfect one — and showcasing the momentum in the relationship based on a set of shared interests.

“This visit is not about China,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with reporters this week. “But the question of China’s role in the military domain, the technology domain, the economic domain will be on the agenda.”

Podcast episode

Modi's White House visit tests Biden's democracy-vs.-autocracy pitch

A series of major announcements are expected Thursday, including a major deal to manufacture General Electric fighter - jet engines in India and a deal in which Delhi will buy General Atomics armed drones, a platform the Indians have wanted for years and which can help them detect and counter moves by China’s military.

The GE deal, anticipated to be worth billions of dollars, involves the provision of sophisticated jet engine technology that has never been shared even with treaty allies, and has the potential to bind the two countries’ defense industries for years to come.

“It’s coveted sensitive technology — something India’s been asking for, for almost two decades,” said Sameer Lalwani, a senior expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. “If it works, it could lead to multiple future generations of jet engines. This is a way for the United States to both be a partner to and shape India’s defense innovation developments over the next 20 to 30 years.”

While the main partner is expected to be a state-owned company, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, officials say there are likely to be private-sector suppliers as India seeks to develop its domestic defense industry. The Modi government realizes that to compete with China, which is well into a decades-long military modernization campaign, it will need to figure out how to advance tech start-ups so they can design technologies at military scale.

Pulling down hurdles to tech and defense collaboration is a key theme of Modi’s visit. Administration officials, from Biden and Sullivan to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have met with Delhi counterparts, and officials in both countries have worked to cut through licensing, export control and other barriers to cooperation.

On the technology front, another major expected announcement involves Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. memory-chipmaker. The two leaders are expected to announce that the Boise, Idaho-based tech giant is building a chip assembly, testing and packaging plant in Modi’s home state of Gujarat.

The deal would represent the first major investment by an American firm as part of the administration’s “national mission on semiconductors” to rebalance supply chains away from China, which sealed itself off from the world for almost three years during the coronavirus pandemic. Significantly, Delhi is expected to finance more than half of the multibillion-dollar project, officials said, and this week authorized “production linked incentives” worth $1.34 billion.

From India’s perspective, these initiatives fulfill two broad objectives, said Arvind Subramanian, Modi’s chief economic adviser from 2014 to 2018. The GE deal, for instance, is part of a long-running effort to wean India off its reliance on Russia for military equipment, said Subramanian, now a senior fellow at Brown University.

As Modi visits White House, India's reliance on Russian arms constrains him

The chip plant and defense deals serve Delhi’s goal of revitalizing a moribund manufacturing sector. To entice foreign investment, the government several years ago launched a major program of subsidies — just as investors were seeking alternative locations to China during the pandemic.

But whether these investments will pay off depends on whether India can change its regulatory culture, reform an over-intrusive state and end arbitrary enforcement of laws, Subramanian said. “It’s an open question,” he said. “It’s not a done deal.”

Meanwhile, China casts an outsize shadow on the region, with its aggressive actions against Taiwan after a visit to Taipei last August by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), its massive military modernization , and dangerous maneuvers in proximity to U.S., Australian and Canadian ships and jets in the Pacific Ocean.

India, which will host the G-20 summit of world leaders this year, aspires to great-power status in its own right. Eschewing explicit alignment with either Russia or China, it has positioned itself as a champion of the developing world.

“India is clearly in a category of its own, in terms of our alliances and partnerships in a number of ways,” said a senior U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. “I think we are like-minded on the balance of issues.”

Modi last month was warmly greeted when he visited a number of Pacific Island nations, a region in which both the United States and China are vying for influence. He flew to Papua New Guinea — a stop that was supposed to be in tandem with Biden after both leaders attended the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. But Biden canceled that leg of his trip to return to Washington to deal with a debt ceiling crisis. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape hailed Modi as “the leader of the Global South.”

While Modi is held up as a voice of developing countries that do not wish to be forced to choose between the United States and China, he is also a lightning rod for criticism over his government’s treatment of its Muslim minority population, and crackdowns on the press and political opposition. That troubling tilt toward illiberalism is the unspoken tension in the Washington visit.

Administration officials, however, prefer to stress the strategic role India can play as a key economic and military partner in the Indo-Pacific and bulwark against China, though they rarely — if ever — in joint statements explicitly mention China.

“You hear us talking a lot about a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner said in an interview. “A strong India and a strong U.S.-India partnership is central to achieving that vision.” That’s why, he said, “the relationship matters.”

Officials in Washington are clear that India will never be a treaty ally in the manner of Japan or Australia. And they understand that Delhi has no intention to give up its strategic autonomy or seek to be seen as aligned with NATO and the West. Modi’s government has refused to condemn Russia for its invasion of Ukraine or join in sanctions.

What’s manifestly changed in the last decade is how India perceives China as a threat. The two countries have been fighting a bitter, bloody battle along their Himalayan border since 2020, one that has claimed 20 Indian lives.

Public opinion in India on China is the lowest it has been since the 1962 war, in which China invaded India. Delhi has banned TikTok, along with more than 100 Chinese apps. It has effectively barred Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE from its 5G networks.

Though observers are tempted to reduce the U.S.-India relationship to a shared interest in countering China — a version of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” — the U.S. investment in India does not involve any expectation that Delhi will aid Washington in defending Taiwan should China invade, administration officials said.

“We’re not making a bet on some future war and whether we’re fighting alongside each other in that war,” Sullivan said. “We’re making a bet that in a variety of areas that matter fundamentally to the economic resilience of the United States, to the success and vitality of an open technology ecosystem, to diversified and resilient supply chains — the things that are core to the Biden foreign policy, that India can play a very constructive role in those areas.”

Countering Chinese military aggression is an effort that has engaged a number of countries around the world in ways that do not involve them shooting at ships in the Taiwan Strait, officials point out.

“[T]here’s a convergence of … interests that can protect the autonomy of India while at the same time deepen the strategic partnership with the United States,” Sullivan said. “And we see no contradiction between those two things.”

Gerry Shih contributed to this report.

South Asia Brief: Modi’s State Visit Aims to Cement U.S.-India Partnership

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Modi’s State Visit Aims to Cement U.S.-India Partnership

Bilateral constraints haven’t gotten in the way of rapidly deepening ties..

• Foreign & Public Diplomacy
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• Michael Kugelman

Welcome to  Foreign Policy ’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Washington for a state visit, Pakistan mourns the loss of dozens of its citizens in a tragic shipwreck off Greece , and authorities struggle to rein in ethnic violence in the Indian state of Manipur .

Sign up to receive South Asia Brief in your inbox every Wednesday.

Modi’s State Visit Begins

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in Washington for a three-day state visit, during which he will meet with U.S. President Joe Biden. Recent conversations with U.S. officials suggest the core focus of Modi’s trip will be security, technology, trade, and people-to-people cooperation. New deals are expected on defense, semiconductors, space, higher education, and visas, among others.

Modi’s trip marks just the third time that Washington has accorded an Indian leader the honor of a state visit. It underscores the strength of U.S.-India partnership, as well as how far it has come. The two countries still face challenges, from bureaucratic hurdles to trade tensions . But these obstacles haven’t prevented their ties from deepening in relatively little time—a reality Biden aims to acknowledge through the state visit.

Sixty years ago, then-Indian President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan traveled to Washington for the first state visit by an Indian leader, on the invitation of then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy. At the time, bilateral relations were warm: At the beginning of the Cold War, U.S. concerns about communist China prompted Washington to strengthen partnership with New Delhi. The United States backed India during its 1962 border war with China.

But in 1971, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon’s decision to pursue normalization with China brought the United States closer to Pakistan, India’s rival. That contributed to New Delhi’s decision that year to ink a friendship treaty with Moscow. As a result, the 1970s and 1980s were a grim period for U.S.-India relations. They experienced a boost when Indian liberalization reforms created opportunities for trade in the 1990s—until Washington sanctioned New Delhi when it became a nuclear weapons state in 1998.

Only in the 2000s did U.S.-India relations enjoy a true renaissance, amid converging interests: first over the threat of international terrorism, and then over China’s growing clout. The bilateral partnership has since rapidly intensified. Chinese provocations in the South China Sea , Taiwan Strait , and along the India-China border have crystallized the urgency of cooperating to counter a common threat. Deepening business partnerships and a growing Indian American community have increased trust and goodwill between Washington and New Delhi.

In recent years, the United States and India have ramped up arms sales, intelligence sharing , and military-to-military cooperation . Technology , clean energy , and higher education have also become fast-growing spaces for cooperation. The scope of this cooperation has also expanded, from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean and even to the Middle East—through their membership in the so-called I2U2 grouping, which also includes Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

To be sure, some of the mistrust between the two countries dating to the Cold War era still lingers. Many Indians decried the slow U.S. response to India’s catastrophic COVID-19 surge in 2021, with some wondering if Russia was still India’s most dependable partner. But such incidents are anomalies. (The delay was likely bureaucratic; Biden had recently taken office and many senior India posts in the administration remained empty.)

The growth in U.S.-India ties is all the more remarkable given the relationship’s considerable constraints. India’s democracy has faltered —a concern for the Biden administration, which emphasizes the importance of shared values. India declines to be a formal U.S. ally, opting to safeguard its strategic autonomy. Meanwhile, each country maintains partnerships with the other’s top rival: Washington with Islamabad, and New Delhi with Moscow.

The two countries have so far navigated these challenges with a combination of flexibility , creativity , and the U.S. willingness to let hard interests prevail over values-based considerations—to the frustration of human rights activists and other critics of India.

Modi’s state visit is poised to overcome another constraint: misplaced expectations. Heady talk is now part of the relationship, which U.S. officials call the most important of the 21st century, and it often raises expectations for deliverables that don’t materialize at high-level summits. The two sides finalized a nuclear cooperation deal in 2008, even though India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was regarded as a milestone for the partnership, but they haven’t signed a comparable agreement since.

However, this week will bring many agreements, including some that have remained elusive, such as a long-rumored armed drones package and unprecedented defense technology transfers . There may even be forward movement on addressing U.S. liability concerns that have inhibited the implementation of the nuclear cooperation deal. Modi’s visit comes at a moment when both countries are experiencing some of their worst tensions with China in decades, underscoring the strategic imperatives of their partnership.

Much has changed for the U.S.-India relationship since Radhakrishnan came to Washington in June 1963. It suffered through many lean years before evolving into what it is today: a stable, strategic partnership with strong support in both capitals.

What We’re Following

Pakistani tragedy at sea. Horrible details have emerged about the fate of the migrants onboard an overloaded trawler that sank off the coast of Greece last week. The boat carried people from Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, as well as many Pakistanis; local media outlets report that as many as 300 Pakistani nationals died when the ship capsized.

All on board were suffering from severe hunger and thirst before the ship went down. But according to survivor accounts provided to Greek coast guard officials and leaked to the Guardian , the Pakistanis on board “were forced below deck,” where they were maltreated by crew members when they tried to leave the vulnerable area.

The tragedy underscores the desperate lengths that some Pakistanis will go to find better opportunities at a moment of severe economic stress . In the wake of the shipwreck, Islamabad has cracked down on human traffickers, leading to 10 arrests in Karachi and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, although few details have emerged about their connection to the trawler.

Violence in Manipur. Nearly two months after ethnic clashes broke out in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, the unrest between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities continues. It has displaced around 50,000 people, and more than 100 people have died. Authorities have struggled to rein in violence in the state; last Thursday, a mob burned the home of a senior federal government official, Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.

The Manipur government, controlled by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has taken heat from locals for not doing enough to stop the unrest. Some Kukis have accused state officials of siding with the Meiteis. The federal government has deployed 40,000 troops to stabilize the situation and attempted to broker talks, with little success. The violence is a sobering reminder of India’s communal fault lines—and the state’s struggles to address them.

In Foreign Policy , Sushant Singh argues that the violence in Manipur will have ripple effects on India’s disputed border with China—and beyond.

Under the Radar

Bollywood is known to generate controversy, but rarely enough to prompt cities outside India to ban all of its films . Yet that’s what’s happened in two major cities in Nepal this week in response to Adipurush , a movie inspired by the Hindu epic Ramayana —and one of the most expensive films ever made in India. The film describes Sita, the wife of Lord Ram, as “India’s daughter.” But Hindus in Nepal believe she was born in the Nepali city of Janakpur.

The mayor of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, ordered theaters to stop playing Bollywood films until the line is changed. The mayor of Pokhara followed suit . Adipurush has been controversial in India as well, with critics lambasting it for being indecent and trivializing some characters from the Ramayana . Interestingly, several leaders of India’s BJP are thanked in the film’s closing credits.

Subjecting sacred ancient religious literature to contemporary artistic interpretations can be sensitive. In the case of Adipurush , it’s had cross-border consequences. On Sunday, one of the film’s co-writers conceded that the “India’s daughter” line will be amended.

More From FP on Modi’s State Visit

• Washington’s Perennial India Fantasy by Howard W. French
• For Biden and Modi, Interests Prevail Over Ideology by C. Raja Mohan
• Why India and the U.S. Are Closer Than Ever by Rishi Iyengar

Regional Voices

Former Pakistani diplomat Maleeha Lodhi , writing in Dawn , laments how the government in Islamabad hasn’t formally committed to holding parliamentary elections—currently scheduled for no later than mid-October—on time. “Any effort to play with the election date beyond what is constitutionally stipulated would be disastrous for the country,” she warns.

In the Daily Mirror , scholar Ahilan Kadirgamar argues that International Monetary Fund assistance is not the solution to Sri Lanka’s economic ills. “With more of the same policies of austerity, and without stimulus to the economy in the form of state support to critical sectors, the hemorrhage is likely to continue,” he writes.

An editorial in Kuensel details the policy challenges posed by street hawking in Bhutan. It calls for a response that emphasizes “the need for a comprehensive and practical solution that balances the socioeconomic realities of the hawkers with the concerns of public safety, urban planning, and formal businesses.”

Michael Kugelman is the writer of Foreign Policy ’s weekly South Asia Brief. He is the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington. Twitter:  @michaelkugelman

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What’s behind Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit?

The US is seeking stronger ties with India, which it sees as a vital ally in efforts to contain China’s rise.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden is scheduled to host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an official visit later this week, as the two countries strengthen their ties amid shared antipathy towards China’s growing influence.

The White House will hold a state dinner in Modi’s honour on June 22, a sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two powers who have stepped up cooperation in areas such as trade and arms sales.

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In a press release, the Biden administration said that a recent trip to New Delhi by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “underscored the dynamism of the US-India partnership in advance of Prime Minister Modi’s historic official state visit next week to the United States”.

But human rights groups say the celebratory dinner is a de facto endorsement of India’s far-right turn under Modi’s leadership — and undermines the Biden administration’s stated goal of emphasising human rights and democracy in its foreign policy.

During Modi’s tenure, India’s Muslims and other minorities have experienced an uptick in violence and repression as the government leans into a form of Hindu nationalism known as Hindutva . Modi has also been criticised for seeking to consolidate power and crack down on dissent.

“A state dinner is a special occasion; it’s not something that just any foreign leader receives,” Edward Mitchell, the deputy executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Al Jazeera over a phone call.

“How can the White House honour a leader who is an open anti-Muslim bigot, a right-wing ideologue who censors journalists and turns a blind eye to lynchings? You can work with India and Modi without taking this extra step to celebrate him.”

Confronting China

While advocacy groups have called for greater scrutiny of India’s human rights record , foreign policy experts say the Biden administration is primarily interested in the country as a potential counterweight to China, which the US sees as its most formidable global competitor.

Sarang Shidore, Director of Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute, a US-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that he believes the US-India relationship will continue to grow as long as their shared concern over China remains in place.

“The United States does not conduct its foreign policy based on democracy and human rights. It conducts its foreign policy based on its interests, as all states do,” Shidore said.

China’s growing military power and assertive territorial claims have become a source of concern for nearby Asian countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and India. The US has worked to fashion alliances with many of those countries in an attempt to contain China’s expanding influence.

“No question, there is increased Chinese nationalism,” said Shidore. “And China sees India as an increasing challenge due to its relationship with the US.”

Expanding ties

That was not always the case. During the Cold War, India’s relations with the US were often frosty. The country had cultivated close ties with the USSR and helped spearhead the Non-Aligned Movement, an organisation of countries that rejected pressures to join either pro-US or pro-Soviet blocs.

For its part, the US was a key ally of Pakistan. And by the early 1970s, the administration of US President Richard Nixon started to build a cooperative relationship with China, as an attempt, in part, to place pressure on the USSR.

But as the Cold War ended and China’s economic rise became a preoccupation of US foreign policy, India — with its size and economic heft — started to be seen as a key regional ally.

Despite its improved ties with the US, however, India has continued to resist what it sees as a false choice between the US and countries like President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But as Russia wages war in Ukraine and Washington seeks to isolate Moscow economically and diplomatically, that balancing act has become more difficult for India to maintain.

While India has increased its purchase of weapons from countries such as France and the US and recently agreed on a roadmap to increase cooperation with the US defence industry, it remains the world’s largest importer of Russian arms.

India has also joined China in buying up Russian oil at discounted prices, while the US and the European Union angle to limit Russia’s power in the global energy market.

But Shidore said that India’s status as a central player in Washington’s Asia strategy gives it significant leverage . Its ties to Russia are not likely to get in the way of its relationship with the US, he explained.

“India has played this quite well, playing Russia and the US off each other, and has benefitted in the process,” he said. “A country like India, which has such a strong convergence with the US on China, can create major spaces where it will differ very strongly from the US and can ride that out.”

Consolidating control

While US relations with allies such as Saudi Arabia and Israel have come under political scrutiny in recent years, Modi’s trip to the US has been welcomed with bipartisan support. An a joint letter inviting Modi to address Congress during his visit, members of the US House of Representatives and Senate have hailed the visit as a sign of the “enduring friendship” between the two countries.

“During your address, you will have the opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face,” the letter reads.

However, Modi’s human rights record has not gone entirely unremarked. On Tuesday, a group of more than 70 lawmakers from the US House and Senate penned a letter to the Biden urging him to discuss concerns about religious freedom and journalistic expression in his talks with Modi.

The Muslim rights group CAIR, meanwhile, has issued a statement calling on the White House to drop its plans for a state dinner.

Modi’s high-profile reception in the US is a far cry from what he experienced before he was first elected prime minister in 2014. Prior to becoming India’s leader, Modi had been banned from entering the US due to allegations that he turned a blind eye to anti-Muslim violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, when he was the province’s chief minister.

The deadly 2002 riots were the subject of a BBC documentary that Modi tried to ban in January, invoking his emergency powers as prime minister. The rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch screened the documentary in Washington on Tuesday.

Human rights groups say the move to ban the film was representative of a larger effort under Modi to stifle dissent and exercise control over independent institutions. They also accuse his government of pursuing an agenda influenced by far-right Hindu nationalism.

In an annual report on religious freedom in May, the US State Department expressed concern about the situation in India, noting that there were “open calls for genocide against Muslims”, lynchings and “attacks on places of worship”.

In May, for the fourth year in a row, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom called on the State Department to designate India as a “country of particular concern”.

In some states controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), politicians who lean into violent anti-Muslim rhetoric face little reprimand. Some Hindu nationalist paramilitaries have also waged a campaign against interfaith marriages , which they portray as an effort to dilute the Hindu population and win converts to Islam through “love jihad”.

Shidore, however, said that Modi’s human rights record has been quickly “papered over” and is unlikely to prevent cooperation with the US, so long as China remains a serious global competitor.

“The United States”, he said, “has set human rights issues aside in order to strengthen ties”.

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Modi’s Trip to Washington Marks New Heights in U.S.-India Ties

What’s behind the dramatic increase in strategic cooperation? One word: China.

By: Sameer P. Lalwani, Ph.D. ;   Daniel Markey, Ph.D. ;   Tamanna Salikuddin ;   Vikram J. Singh

Publication Type: Analysis

Against the backdrop of tightening U.S.-India ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Washington this week for an official state visit — only the third President Joe Biden has hosted since taking office. The bilateral relationship has soared to new heights in recent years, particularly on economic, technological and defense issues. Underpinning these developments is both sides’ desire to counter China’s effort to project power and influence across the Indo-Pacific region. While Washington and New Delhi have their disagreements on issues like Russia’s war on Ukraine and human rights, they see the relationship as too strategically vital to be jeopardized by these differences.

USIP’s Tamanna Salikuddin, Vikram Singh, Sameer Lalwani and Daniel Markey analyze the significance of this visit, the difficult issues that will be on the table, and how China will factor will into the leaders’ discussions.

What is the significance of the state visit for both the United States and for India?

Salikuddin: Modi’s visit will be filled with substantive and ceremonial events, including a South Lawn welcome, a state dinner and an address to a joint session of Congress. While Modi has visited the United States several times, this will be his first state visit, demonstrating the depth of the bilateral U.S.-India relationship, which Biden has described as the “defining relationship” of the 21st century. Per the White House’s official announcement , “the visit will strengthen our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous, and secure Indo-Pacific and our shared resolve to elevate our strategic technology partnership, including in defense, clean energy, and space.”

While none of the official statements mention China, this visit is all about China. As U.S.-China competition is only becoming more intense and the Biden administration identifies China as its “pacing” challenge, India is one of the most important partners for the United States in its Indo-Pacific policy. While India actively counters China on its northern border, its deepening relationship with the United States make it part of the bulwark of nations committed to countering Beijing’s malign influence.

Beyond the convergence on China, India and the United States are seeking deeper ties on economic, defense and technological grounds. This visit is significant in cementing the partnership, and no detail is being left unchecked with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visiting New Delhi in the last few weeks. This visit and the broader high-level U.S.-India engagements this year — including Biden’s planned trip to New Delhi in the fall — are a high-water mark in the bilateral relationship. Coming 18 years after the historic U.S.-India civil nuclear deal, these engagements highlight the remarkable progress that has been made in terms of expanding economic, social, technological and defense aspects of the U.S.-India relationship.

As Modi departed India, he reaffirmed the significance of the trip: “I am confident that my visit to the [U.S.] will reinforce our ties based on shared values of democracy, diversity, and freedom. Together we stand stronger in meeting the shared global challenges.”

What are the difficult topics that might be on the table, and how are Biden and Modi likely to navigate these?

Singh: Biden and Modi are determined to take U.S.-India relations to a new level with this visit, and part of having a mature strategic partnership is the ability to tackle difficult issues and areas of disagreement.

Issues that get a lot of media attention include policy differences on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and issues of human rights and democracy. More below-the-radar are key regional challenges like Afghanistan and Myanmar ; enduring difficulties in a bilateral trade agenda; and finding a way to cooperate more on global governance, especially regulation of technology and the digital economy.

India will also seek progress in easing visas for Indian citizens, especially student visas and H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers, and U.S. commitments to greater technology sharing needed to implement the high-tech cooperation the leaders have rolled out.

A major change over the past decade is that the United States and India can now disagree on some issues and continue to work together on a large shared agenda. Given the strong personal bond Biden and Modi seem to have developed, expect them to be direct and forthright with one another in private and broadly supportive and celebratory in public.

On issues like Ukraine, intense private consultations will likely touch on assessments of the state of the conflict and the need to ensure Putin does not turn to nuclear weapons. Biden may seek Modi’s assessment of Putin and possible paths Russia might take to end the war. On Afghanistan, Modi and Biden may share assessments of Taliban, al-Qaida, ISIS and Pakistan-based militant threats since the U.S. withdrawal. India has kept a small diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and may encourage the United States to engage more actively to partner in preventing terrorism in and from the region.

Democracy and human rights, which get the most media attention, will not be avoided, but expect a similar pragmatic approach. U.S. leaders are concerned about democracy everywhere — including at home. Biden has taken an inclusive view that all democracies face challenges and that leaders of democracies should work together to improve durable democratic development. That will likely be the approach with India. U.S. leaders will welcome public comments or gestures from Modi in support of pluralistic democracy, but do not believe that lecturing India on these issues can be effective. A logical takeaway is that the United States will handle human rights concerns with India more like it does with a country like Poland.

First and foremost, Biden and Modi both pursue the interests of their own citizens, and they seem to understand each other on this basis. For Modi, this means development and meeting the basic needs of 1.4 billion people by transforming India into a modern, global technology powerhouse that competes with China. For Biden it means rebuilding the American middle class and maintaining America’s global leadership. Underneath the lofty rhetoric about two great democracies, these leaders see pragmatic benefits for their own people coming from deeper social, economic, political and security ties. They will manage the hard stuff to protect those gains.

How might the outcomes of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s recent trip to India shape conversations on defense and technology?

Lalwani: Austin’s trip to New Delhi two weeks ago helped finalize agreements and set the table for Modi’s historic state visit to Washington. The 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy called for more technology cooperation with allies and partners, which produced greater technology-sharing mechanisms with Australia (through the AUKUS deal with the United Kingdom) as well as with Japan . Now the United States appears poised to take some unprecedented steps toward the third partner in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, India.

U.S. technology cooperation with India is likely to include co-production and technology sharing of General Electric engines , which will be used in Indian military fighter jets to deter and defend against China. Additional Defense Department efforts involve a defense industrial cooperation roadmap to expedite co-production of military equipment; new programs to network both countries entrepreneurs, research labs, industry, and venture capital fueling defense innovations over the medium term; and enhanced scientific collaboration on emerging technologies in artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and robotics.

The strategic result will be twofold — enhanced Indian deterrence and greater trust in U.S.-India defense collaboration. First, in the near to medium term, India will be able to augment its military capabilities to defend against Chinese aggression, which ratcheted up with the Galwan crisis and clashes during the summer of 2020. The defense industrial roadmap involves four focus areas for fast-tracking technology cooperation: air combat and land mobility systems; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); munitions; and the undersea domain awareness (UDA).

As India is able to quickly develop better ISR assets, it will be able to identify the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) maneuvers or gray zone incursions on their disputed continental border much earlier. Similarly, better UDA will enable India to better discern and track Chinese submarine activity in the Indian Ocean, and share that data with friends and partners. With both, detection will play a critical role in deterrence. Greater land mobility systems will help India to quickly surge forces and supplies to flashpoints along the disputed border with China, while longer range munitions can threaten to interdict PLA supply lines in the event of a conflict.

The second expected result of this technology sharing effort can be greater mutual trust in order to enhance collaboration in the Indo-Pacific. The trust generated from top-down and bottom-up technology cooperation may be less tangible yet is more significant. India has made no secret of its decades-long desire for a high-technology partnership, and the great lengths the U.S. government has gone to fulfill this deserve serves as a costly signal of its commitment and reliability. With this mutual trust, both partners will be better able to engage in more advanced joint assessments, contingency planning, and exercises as they prepare to backstop each other, interoperate together, and share the burdens of deterring aggression and securing the Indo-Pacific commons.

What are the most pressing issues the United States and India will be focused on when it comes to China?

Markey: The bedrock for cooperation between the United States and India lies in a shared interest in deterring Chinese territorial aggression and challenging the extension of China’s political influence and military presence in India’s backyard.

The most immediate concern is along the Line of Actual Control, the contested China-India land border, where China has made vast investments in military infrastructure that have already enabled it to push India from former patrolling points and could, in a worst-case scenario, even enable large-scale incursions into Indian territory. U.S. officials are eager to help India reinforce its own capacity to deter and defend against such attacks, as they pose a genuine near-term threat to Indian security and represent a dangerous precedent that could intimidate other less powerful states across the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. defense sales to India are intended to fill immediate capability gaps (for instance, to improve border surveillance with U.S.-made drones ) as well as to co-manufacture future weapon systems (such as fighter jet engines ).

Also of concern to both Washington and New Delhi is the rapid growth of China’s navy. Although China’s military is disproportionately focused on challenges along the nation’s eastern seaboard, especially Taiwan and the South and East China Seas, the rapid modernization and expansion of its fleet enables operations across the Indian Ocean as well. U.S. officials aim to explore cooperative ventures with India that will enable better monitoring of and response to Chinese maritime activities.

Finally, whereas in the past Indian officials jealously perceived U.S. involvement in South Asia as a threat to India’s regional hegemony, now New Delhi is increasingly eager to see Washington play an active economic and political role in neighboring states across the region, such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as a means to counterbalance Chinese influence.

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Highlights: PM Narendra Modi’s three days in China

Narendra modi is in shanghai on day 3 of his china visit..

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left Shanghai for Mongolia after wrapping up his first-ever visit to China where he held talks with the country’s top leadership and signed key agreements to boost bilateral ties, including trade.

“Goodbye China! My gratitude for the warmth & hospitality. Will always remember my visit fondly,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

Goodbye China! My gratitude for the warmth & hospitality. Will always remember my visit fondly: PM @narendramodi Tweets — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

“Let’s make India-China ties even stronger in the years to come,” he said in another tweet.

Let’s make India-China ties even stronger in the years to come: PM @narendramodi Tweets — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

Modi, who was on a three-day maiden visit to China as the first stop of his three-nation tour, held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping besides his counterpart Li Keqiang.

中国再见！感谢中国政府和人民的热情款待。我会永远的记得这次访问。未来这些年我们应该共同努力进一步加强印中关系。 — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2015

On Day 3 of his China visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today met several Chinese CEOs in an attempt to woo them to come invest in India. Jack Ma of Alibaba was among those present in the meeting today in Shanghai.

[Read: Standing still no option, have to move ahead: PM Modi ]

[PHOTOS: Modi unleashes ‘selfie diplomacy’ in China ]

Day 1 saw PM Modi meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the latter’s hometown of Xi’an and the next day saw the Prime Minister travelling to Beijing to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. India and China signed a record 24 bilateral agreements on Friday.

LIVE UPDATES

1: 10 pm:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi address the Indian community in Shanghai.

PM @narendramodi arrives for Indian Community Reception at ICBC World Expo Exhibition & Convention Centre pic.twitter.com/pwIXcirqPp — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

PM Modi woos the community by saying, he is trying to learn and implement the knowledge to develop India.

I had also said I am going learn whatever good is happening, as a student with an open mind: PM @narendramodi in Shanghai — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

PM Modi thanks the community and says, only Indian can elect a common man  as a Prime Minister of a country.

Prime Minister said, “The world is seeing this visit very closely. The President of China welcomed another leader in a place outside Beijing” for the first time.

The world is seeing this visit very closely. The President of China welcomed another leader in a place outside Beijing: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

India and China represent one third of humanity. Together we can be a force of good for the entire world. pic.twitter.com/bLJECbRQr2 — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

Prime Minister Modi, invokes the message of ‘Vasudhaiva-kutumbakam’ to the Indian community, says it it India that has taught every one that ‘world is one family’. “We have been taught the world is a family, ” Prime Minister said on Saturday.

Whole world is a family. Languages may vary, other features may differ but entire world is a family & thats what we have been taught: PM — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

Taking a dig at the previous governments, PM Modi says he has worked so much in a year, as he tried to complete 30 years of work. He said, “I am criticised for working hard. I am criticised for traveling.”

PM Modi expresses joy as he met students from two top universities in China.

The best part of my visit was the meetings I had with the youth, at two different functions: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

Prime Minister said, “We must be proud of our country first, only then the world will praise us and accept us.”

Prime Minister also said, “Imperative that we increase people to people contact between India and China.”

Imperative that we increase people to people contact between India and China:PM @narendramodi at Community Reception pic.twitter.com/pA9IkhQWel — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

Prime Minister thanks the community for organising such an event and said, this event itself is a ‘historic’ moment in the developing relation between India and China.

12: 20 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts addressing the students at the Fudan University. Modi said, it is a historic and ‘pavitra’ (auspicious) occasion.

Today is historic. I have joined a very ‘Pavitra’ occasion here: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

While addressing the students at the launch, Modi expressed joy as he got opportunity to connect with the ‘yuvas’ (youth) of two universities in his three-day visit.

PM expressed joy that in his three day visit he got the opportunity to interact with students in two universities. — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

Mahatma Gandhi is a ‘Yug Purush’ and a ‘Vishwa Manav’, says Prime Minister Modi says during his address to the students.

Mahatma Gandhi is a ‘Yug Purush’ and a ‘Vishwa Manav’: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

Modi recalls Mahatma Gandhi and says, “Gandhian philosophy can help us in the fight against terrorism and deal with climate change.”

Gandhian philosophy can help us in the fight against terrorism and deal with climate change. PM @narendramodi at Fudan University — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

12: 16 pm : PM Modi is expected to address students at Fudan University shortly.

Historic launch of Centre for Gandhian & Indian Studies at Fudan University by PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/80C8zAlEJw — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

Chinese students reciting verses from the Bhagwad Gita at Opening Ceremony of Centre for Gandhian & Indian Studies pic.twitter.com/7drAj4jdEr — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

11:03 am : Here’s the food menu of the banquet hosted for PM Modi in Shanghai.

Shanghai vegetarian specials in honour of PM @narendramodi . Menu at Banquet hosted by Mr. Han Zheng pic.twitter.com/9ltFQbXgw5 — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

11:00 am : PM Modi is currently meeting Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng

9:01 am : Right now, 21 business agreements worth about $22 billion are being signed at the India China Business Forum.

21 Business Agreements being signed between #IndiaChina worth USD 22billion at India-China Business Forum pic.twitter.com/GxNnnarTkg — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

8:57 am : India has always been a knowledge society. You have been an innovative society: PM Modi

The scope and potential, the breadth and length of infrastructure is very huge in India: PM Modi

‘We also want to promote manufacturing in a big way particularly to create jobs for our youth who form 65% of our population’: PM Modi

‘Indo-Chinese partnership should and will flourish’: PM Modi

‘Let us work together in mutual interest and for progress and prosperity of our great countries’: PM Modi

8:48 am : PM Modi is now speaking at the India China Business Forum in Shanghai.

I strongly believe that this century belongs to Asia: PM @narendramodi — PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 16, 2015

8:24 am: Chairmans of Huawei and Shanghai Media Group were among those present at the interaction between PM Modi and CEOs.

A who’s who of Chinese industry! Here’s the list of top business persons who attended the CEO’s interaction with PM pic.twitter.com/cbavTZt2Y4 — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

8:04 am : PM Modi gives Chinese CEOs a Five F formula.

The 5F Formula – From Farm to Fibre to Fabric to Fashion to Foreign! PM @narendramodi inviting Chinese CEO’s to Make in India — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

7:45 am : Xiaomi president Lin Bin told PM Modi that the company has big plans for India.

“We have some big plans for India, We fully support Make in India,” President of Xiaomi Lin Bin to PM @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/WahnxVAuoj — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

7:39 am : Liang Wengen, chairman of SANY, told the Prime Minister that India is a huge market and has a dynamic work force.

‘We are full of hope about India, which offers a dynamic work force and huge market “. Liang Wengen, Chairman SANY pic.twitter.com/hfV0CXvBPD — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

7:30 am : This is what Jack Ma of Alibaba fame told PM Modi in the meeting today.

“We are excited about India. We are excited about Make in India and Digital India.” Jack Ma of Alibaba to PM Modi pic.twitter.com/U46WKdT1nD — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

7: 17 am : PM Modi in a photo-op with Chinese CEOs in Shanghai.

Trillions of dollars under 1 roof! PM @narendramodi with Who’s Who of Chinese industry at CEO’s interaction Shanghai pic.twitter.com/NKzRvZvcrJ — Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) May 16, 2015

• Narendra Modi

Aparajita Ghosh, an HR professional, returns to Serampore to vote but is unimpressed by BJP's Vishwaguru campaign. Despite its success in projecting PM Modi as a global leader, it lacks support on the ground. Bengal's people prioritize local issues like corruption, unemployment, and TMC's corruption "Syndicate". Many sympathize with Arvind Kejriwal.

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Indian Prime Minister Modi visits China

Subscribe to this week in foreign policy, tanvi madan tanvi madan senior fellow - foreign policy , center for asia policy studies @tanvi_madan.

May 13, 2015

• 12 min read

Later this week, when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet in China, they’ll be representing more than one third of humanity . The countries they lead have two of the largest economies and militaries in the world, are among the fastest growing global energy consumers, and have economies that are expected to grow at about 7 percent this year. There’s a reason the two are called Asian giants—and whether or not they get along, and how they do, has implications beyond their region.

Their relationship has had elements of cooperation, competition and, potentially, conflict. And, as Modi goes to China, his attempt will be to enhance cooperation, reduce asymmetries, manage competition, and deter conflict. This piece lays out the following:

• India’s relationship with China
• The Modi government’s approach towards China over the last year
• The forthcoming visit

( Those familiar with the relationship might want to skip to the second or third sections.)  

The China-India relationship

Neither China nor India nor India’s relationship with China are what they used to be a decade and a half ago. For one, there is much more high-level engagement, with senior policymakers meeting in bilateral, regional, and multilateral gatherings. 

(Click on the image to expand)

The two countries have a number of political dialogues in place, including on Afghanistan and counterterrorism, as well as a defense dialogue and a number of economic dialogues. The countries’ border dispute remains unresolved, but mechanisms have been put in place to manage it. They have cooperated in multilateral settings, including on climate change, trade, and global economic governance. When he had been ambassador to China, current Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar had called economic cooperation the “the game changer” in the relationship. Indeed, bilateral trade has gone from just over $2 billion in 2000 to 2001 to $65 billion in 2013 to 2014 and the investment relationship has also grown as well, albeit more slowly. There’s also more people-to-people interaction, with close to 800,000 people traveling between the two countries in 2012 — four times the number a decade before .  

However, the old sources of strain have not disappeared and some new ones have emerged. While the lack of resolution of the border dispute might not have stopped Sino-Indian engagement, it might have slowed its pace and set a ceiling on it. Beyond the border, the issue of Tibet (particularly the presence of the Dalai Lama in India), the sharing of river waters, China’s increasing activities in India’s immediate neighborhood (especially its close relationship with Pakistan), as well as Chinese wariness about India’s relationships in its periphery, have been sources of concern. Economic and people-to-people ties have been asymmetrical. There is now also more daylight between where China and India stand on the issues of regional trade and climate change. Connectivity has remained limited—for example, there’s only one almost-daily direct flight between Delhi and Beijing, and no direct flights connecting Mumbai and Shanghai, the two financial capitals. There is also an overall sense in India that China does not respect India and/or that it will seek to prevent India’s rise. As evidence, critics highlight China’s reluctance to endorse explicitly India’s demand for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and its objections to India being given membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. In India, there’s also a lack of trust in China and its intentions, which tends to exacerbate all these concerns mentioned.

Modi and China: The first year

Indian governments have pursued a blended approach of engaging China, competing with it, deterring it, and preparing for the eventuality of Beijing breaking bad. The exact blend has depended on perceptions of China and its behavior, India’s strength and its options in terms of partners and instruments, as well as the worldviews of the senior policymakers involved. In the year, since Modi has been at the helm, we’ve seen him follow this blended approach, with perhaps a greater intensity—both more engagement, but also more of each of the other elements.

Modi, no stranger to China, having visited multiple times as Gujarat chief minister—has repeatedly stated that he wants to do business with China (literally). Chinese policymakers, on their part, had welcomed his coming to power. And high-level engagement has been frequent over the last year. 

The last leader-level bilateral summit took place when Xi visited India for the first time in September 2014. During that trip, Modi departed from protocol, welcoming the president at his hometown in Ahmedabad. The two countries signed a number of agreements, including on cooperation in the railways sector and on smart cities, as well as an understanding about the establishment of special economic zones in the Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. However, the potentially conflictual side of the relationship was also evident during that visit, with a border incident coloring the atmosphere, dominating Indian news coverage, and perhaps changing the tone of the ensuing statements somewhat.

Even before that point, Modi and other government officials hadn’t hesitated to be vocal about India’s sensitivities, acknowledge the competitive element in the relationship, or express concern about Chinese behavior in the region.

The Modi government has repeatedly asserted that Arunachal Pradesh is an Indian state (China claims what it calls South Tibet). The prime minister appointed a deputy home minister from Arunachal Pradesh and he and a number of other officials have traveled to the state. Indeed, in the weeks before Modi’s visit, the Indian defense minister traveled to the state, where he also went to the Tawang War Memorial; the deputy defense minister soon followed as well.

The government has also focused on building up internal strength and external partnerships. On the first, beyond economic growth, there’s a stated desire to modernize Indian military capabilities, increased budget allocations for border roads development and plans to continue (and, ideally, speed up) upgrading border infrastructure. There’s also been an emphasis on better integrating and developing India’s northeast.

On the partnership front, there have been two elements. One has involved India’s neighborhood; the other China’s. Modi has made the Indian neighborhood a priority, both in terms of senior policymakers’ travel, willingness to make concessions, and attempts to try to get deals done (with an announced intention of delivering on them more effectively). The second has been high-level and expanded engagement with many of the countries in China’s periphery, including Australia, Japan, the United States, and Vietnam. The government has made it clear that it will not let China have veto power or even serve as a brake on its relations with them.

This engagement will continue: After he visits China, he will go on to Mongolia and South Korea.

The government has gone further in publicly expressing the kind of Asia-Pacific that it would like to see. While the previous government had not expressed its view on the South China Sea dispute in bilateral documents, this government has done so with Vietnam and the United States. It has found ways to indicate that it does not share what some have outlined as Xi’s vision of Asia, with China the dominant country and with the United States playing a minimal role. Policymakers have repeatedly stated that they would like to see a continued and effective U.S. role in the Asia-Pacific, as well as the Indian Ocean, unusually joining the United States to sign a Joint Strategic Vision on the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean Region . Modi also seemed to respond to what was seen as Xi’s “ Asia for Asians ” suggestion, noting, “When I look towards the East, I see the western shores of the United States. That tells us that we belong to the same vast region.” With Japan, India outlined the kind of Asia it would like to see, noting the responsibility that the two countries share to shape “the character of this region.”

Modi’s visit to China

Modi will go into this visit having left his honeymoon period in India behind, but still leading a country that is considered a “bright spot” in the global economic landscape and following a year of successful engagement with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The prime minister is aware that China sees India as an economic opportunity right now and would like to try to limit how much India expands its relations with countries like Japan and the United States. He’d like to take advantage of that to facilitate his domestic goals.

During Modi’s visit, the intent will be for the cooperative elements of the China-India relationship to feature, including economic engagement, increased connectivity and political dialogue, culture and optics.

A key focus of the visit is likely to be increasing economic engagement and connectivity. We’ll hear a lot about the common goal of development. Indian policymakers, in particular, will be looking for steps to correct some of the prevailing asymmetries:

While in the past there’s been an argument that the trade imbalance can perhaps be somewhat made up for by increased Chinese investment, in recent days, the Indian foreign secretary clearly made a distinction, saying that India wanted to see both increased Chinese investment and to increase exports to China. India would also like more Chinese manufacturing in India (that will also support the Modi government’s Make-in-India initiative), pledges of investments, and increased market access for its companies and particularly its information technology, pharmaceutical, and agricultural products. They’re likely to offer to give Chinese companies more access in certain sectors, liberalise visa policy, and move toward the establishment of the special economic zones (SEZs). The chief ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra, where the SEZs are being contemplated, will be traveling with the prime minister. Some of these policies will meet with criticism in some quarters in India, particularly the security establishment that’s concerned about giving China access to sensitive sectors and regions, and increasing Indian vulnerability to China, and in some domestic economic quarters.

Beijing might be looking for endorsement of its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiatives (Silk Road Economic Belt, Maritime Silk Road) and has said it will “ accommodate India’s concerns .” So far, while India was an early prospective founding member of one Chinese regional initiative (the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), it has not till now been convinced of OBOR. When asked about it yesterday, the Indian foreign secretary stated , “we have not really had a detailed discussion on this subject.” In the meantime, the two countries have been exploring a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor.

The focus on economics and connectivity will not mean that politics will be missing from the agenda. Gone are the days when the dominant argument put forward that better economics would inevitably lead to better (geo)politics. At the end of the Xi visit, Modi instead suggested that good politics was a pre-requisite for more economics, stating that if  the two countries achieved “a climate of mutual trust and confidence; respect for each other’s sensitivities and concerns; and, peace and stability in our relations and along our borders” then “we can reinforce each other’s economic growth.”

The concern on the part of Modi’s critics is that his desire to increase economic engagement with China, and particularly increase Chinese investment in India, will lead him to be “ soft ” on China in the short-term and leave India vulnerable to pressure in the long-term. Others argue that he will turn a blind eye to Chinese transgressions or get taken for a ride. They are particularly concerned about what he might commit to vis-à-vis the border. The last time a BJP prime minister visited China, in what was considered a “breakthrough” visit, India did take some steps on the Tibet question and China on Sikkim, though critics in India thought it had conceded more.

The border dispute will likely be discussed, but it’s unclear what kind of movement—if any—will be evident. Both Xi and Modi have indicated that they’d like to move from managing it to moving to resolve it. There’s a debate in India about whether this is possible, what a settlement will entail , and whether this is the right time to push for one. There’s also the issue of politics. Contrary to the Chinese premier’s recent statement that the relationship enjoys “profound popular support,” in India there remains a deep lack of trust in China, stemming to memories of the 1962 war. Modi might have political capital, but pushing through a settlement would require more of it—and a lot more prepping of ground with the public—given that Modi’s party doesn’t have the seats required to pass the constitutional amendment that would be needed. Resolution might be a ways-away, but we might nonetheless see an announcement of the next step on this front

In addition, the two countries will probably discuss sensitive subjects such as Tibet, as well as China’s recent commitments to Pakistan. There are two views on the latter in India—one that China’s promised investment there will threaten India, and the other that it will give Beijing a greater stake in stability in Pakistan. Taking maritime cooperation forward might also be on agenda. There will also likely be discussion of a number of global and regional issues, not least the situation in Afghanistan, the Asia-Pacific, as well as the Middle East.

We’re also likely to see a fair bit of emphasis on optics, including moments of planned spontaneity—an attempt on the part of Beijing to develop the Xi-Modi relationship, reciprocate the hospitality that Modi showed to Xi when he visited India, and to convey that China does take India seriously, but also an attempt perhaps to make up for the lost opportunity during the last visit, when the border incident jettisoned any public relations gains that Beijing had had in mind.

Modi, in turn, is likely to highlight culture, especially Buddhism. This is part of his broader attempt to reclaim and highlight India’s cultural contributions to the world, including yoga—there’s a scheduled yoga-tai chi joint event planned during this visit as well. The highlighting of Buddhism, in particular, serves different purposes: creating a bond with China , stressing India’s long-standing connections to Asia (thus also resisting being restricted to the “South Asia” box), as well as pushing back on any notion that China is India’s superior in civilizational terms—witness Modi’s statements and tweets on how Buddhism traveled from India to China, a connection that China used to try to downplay.

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Constanze Stelzenmüller

May 30, 2024

Molly E. Reynolds, Tara Varma, Sophie Roehse

May 28, 2024

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May 22, 2024

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It started with a civil rights rally, and ended in riots. NPR investigates how 16 of India's most famous human rights activists were jailed for an alleged terror plot. They say they were framed.

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Putin concludes a trip to China by emphasizing its strategic and personal ties to Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but has no plans to capture the city.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said his country is ready to provide support to Chinese businesses setting up production in Russia. “We are ready to provide investors from China with economic benefits, assistance and support, as well as access to the unique Russian technological base of highly qualified personnel,” Putin said during an address at the opening of the Russia-China expo event in the Chinese city of Harbin.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin laid flowers on Friday at a WWII memorial in Harbin during his state visit to China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, left, visit the Russian-Chinese EXPO in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Russian journalists in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Students listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, left of Putin, visit an exhibition of the Russia-China Expo and the Russia-China Forum on Interregional Cooperation in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a laying flowers ceremony at the Monument to the Soviet soldiers who died in the battles for the liberation of China’s northeast from Japanese invaders in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Alexander Ryumin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin crosses himself as he visits the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Alexander Ryumin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng talk to each other as they visit the Russian-Chinese EXPO in Harbin in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, second right, and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, second left, visit the Russian-Chinese EXPO in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Sergei Bobylev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Alexander Ryumin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, visits the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Alexander Ryumin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Chinese Vice President Han Zheng during their talks in Harbin in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens for a question as he talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with students of the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, northeastern China’s Heilongjiang Province, on Friday, May 17, 2024. (Alexander Ryumin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

BEIJING (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day visit to China on Friday, emphasizing the countries’ burgeoning strategic ties as well as his own personal relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as they sought to present an alternative to U.S. global influence.

Putin praised the growth in bilateral trade while touring a China-Russia Expo in the northeastern city of Harbin. He met students at the Harbin Institute of Technology, known for its defense research and its work with the People’s Liberation Army.

Harbin, capital of China’s Heilongjiang province, was once home to many Russian expatriates and retains some of that history in its architecture, such as the central St. Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church.

Underscoring the personal nature of the relationship, Putin said the Harbin institute and his alma mater, St. Petersburg State University, will open a joint school for 1,500 students. “I’m sure that it will become a flagship of the Russian-Chinese cooperation in science and education,” he said

Speaking to reporters, Putin praised his talks with Xi as “substantive,” saying that he spent “almost a whole day, from morning till evening” with the Chinese leader and other officials in Beijing the previous day. As he departed Beijing, the two leaders embraced.

The partnership between China and Russia “is not directed against anyone,” Putin said in a veiled reference to the West. “It is aimed at one thing: creating better conditions for the development of our countries and improving the well-being of the people of China and the Russian Federation.”

But he still had a back-handed rebuke for the U.S., and others who oppose the Moscow-Beijing relationship, saying an “emerging multipolar world ... is now taking shape before our eyes.”

“And it is important that those who are trying to maintain their monopoly on decision-making in the world on all issues ... do everything in their power to ensure that this process goes naturally,” he said.

Both Russia and China have frequently spoken of the “emerging multipolar world” in response to what they view as U.S. hegemony.

Joseph Torigian, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, said the message being sent by China and Russia was clear: “At this moment, they’re reminding the West that they can be defiant when they want to.”

In Washington, White House national security spokesman John Kirby played down the importance of the meeting, saying that although the two countries are acting in ways that are contrary to U.S. interests, they don’t have a long history of trusting each other.

Kirby noted that a U.S. intelligence assessment released last month indicates that China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology Moscow uses to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry. “But they’re also two leaders that don’t have a long history of working together, and officials in both governments that aren’t necessarily all that trustful of the other,” Kirby said.

”What they have in common is a desire to to challenge the international rules based order,” and to challenge alliances and partnerships involving the U.S., Kirby said.

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu addressed Putin’s visit in an interview with The Associated Press , saying Western powers should continue to support Ukraine as part of sending a message that democracies will defend one another.

“If Ukraine is defeated at the end, I think China is going to get inspired, and they might take even more ambitious steps in expanding their power in the Indo-Pacific, and it will be disastrous for the international community,” Wu said.

Putin this month began his fifth term in power and Xi began his third last year. The Russian leader’s trip “is an example of the two big authoritarian countries supporting each other, working together with each other, supporting each other’s expansionism,” Wu added.

Russia has become isolated globally following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine . China has a tense relationship with the U.S., which has labeled it a competitor, and faces pressure for continuing to supply key components to Russia needed for weapons production.

Putin began the day by laying flowers at a Harbin monument to fallen Soviet soldiers who had fought for China against the Japanese during the second Sino-Japanese war, when Japan occupied parts of China.

At the trade exhibition in Harbin, Putin emphasized the importance of Russia-China cooperation in jointly developing new technologies.

“Relying on traditions of friendship and cooperation, we can look into the future with confidence,” he said. “The Russian-Chinese partnership helps our countries’ economic growth, ensures energy security, helps develop production and create new jobs.”

A joint statement on Thursday described their world view and expounded on criticism of U.S. military alliances in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting was yet another affirmation of the friendly “no-limits” relationship China and Russia signed in 2022, just before Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Talks of ending the fighting featured frequently in Thursday’s remarks, although Russia has just opened a new front by launching attacks in Ukraine’s northeastern border area. The war is at a critical point for Ukraine , which had faced delays in getting weapons from the U.S.

China offered a broad plan for peace last year that was rejected by both Ukraine and the West for failing to call for Russia to leave occupied parts of Ukraine.

Since the invasion and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow, Russia has increasingly depended on China for technology and some consumer imports while exporting cheap energy. Trade between the two countries increased to $240 billion last year.

European leaders have pressed China to influence Russia to end its invasion, to little avail. Experts say the Moscow-Beijing relationship offers strategic benefits, particularly when both have tensions with Europe and the U.S.

“Even if China compromises on a range of issues, including cutting back support on Russia, it’s unlikely that the U.S. or the West will drastically change their attitude to China as a competitor,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, who researches Chinese foreign policy at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University. “They see very little incentive for compromise.”

Xi and Putin have a longstanding agreement to visit each other’s countries once a year, and Xi was welcomed at the Kremlin last year.

Wu reported from Bangkok. AP writers Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Simina Mistreanu and Christopher Bodeen in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed.

Kenyan president's visit: A snub, a state dinner and a major 'non-NATO' ally designation

Lawmaker calls it an 'affront to american diplomacy' for house speaker mike johnson to not invite president william ruto to give an address to a joint session of congress.

WASHINGTON — What's on the menu at the White House for visiting Kenyan President William Ruto: Smoked short ribs and buttered lobster. What's not on the menu: An invitation for the African leader to address a joint session of Congress.

That missing course has left many lawmakers fuming.

Even as President Joe Biden gets ready to treat Ruto and his wife, Rachel, to a sumptuous state dinner Thursday night, some fear the absence of an honor that has been accorded to all recent visiting heads of state could leave a bitter aftertaste.

Many prominent lawmakers are upset over House Speaker Mike Johnson's rejection of a joint meeting of Congress with Ruto, which was proposed by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to "underscore the importance of the U.S-Kenya relationship." His office cited "scheduling" issues for the denial.

Ruto’s trip is the first state visit by a Kenyan president to the United States in two decades and the first by an African leader since 2008. The last African leader to address Congress was Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who spoke in the House chamber in 2006.

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'Affront to American diplomacy'

In a letter to Johnson, Rep. Steven Horsford, chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, called the move an "affront to American diplomacy," adding that it was "especially troubling" given that other heads of state who have come to the U.S. for an official visit during the 118 th Congress have been invited to address Congress.

The letter, signed by more than 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, demanded that Ruto be "treated with the same respect granted to other heads of state."

Recent heads of state including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kashida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol have all addressed the joint session of Congress.

"Failing to invite President Ruto sends a dangerous message to the world," Horsford wrote. "About which countries the United States Congress deems worthy of addressing Congress and diminishes the importance of our nation’s relationship with the continent of Africa."

Lawmakers warn 'adversaries' are working to dent U.S. alliances

Asked about his decision, Johnson’s office sent a statement to USA TODAY saying "scheduling restraints" were the reason for the lack of invitation.

“We offered the Kenyan embassy over 90 minutes of engagement including a one-on-one visit with Speaker Johnson, bipartisan leadership meeting with Speaker Johnson, Leader Jeffries, and Committee Chairmen and Ranking Members, and a bicameral meeting,” the statement said of the meeting that took place on Wednesday.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, along with other lawmakers, also wrote to Johnson pointing out how "adversaries" like China, Russia, and Iran were working to subvert America’s alliances, particularly in Africa.

The East African nation, which is getting ready to deploy its police force in Haiti as the Caribbean country deals with the ongoing gang crisis, is emerging as a vital African partner to the U.S. Johnson’s choice not to provide Ruto the opportunity to address Congress helps create an opening for autocratic adversaries to make inroads in African public opinion, lawmakers warned, adding: "The people of Kenya deserve more respect."

Ruto’s visit marks 60 years of official U.S.-Kenya partnership “founded on shared values, deep cooperation, and a common vision for the future,” according to the White House. Biden is also expected to inform Congress on Thursday that he intends to designate Kenya as a major “non-NATO Ally." It's a designation granted by the United States to countries with close and strategic working relationships with the U.S. military and defense civilians.

Among other partnerships the two countries will work on include global peace and security, economic development, human rights, and tackling the climate crisis.

The state dinner, a glamorous diplomatic tool, will set the stage for a “friendship that will endure, helping create a shining and prosperous tomorrow,” said first lady Jill Biden.

Roses and orchids

On Thursday night, guests will dine under the stars, in a pavilion made of glass and glowing with candles.

The décor for the evening reflects the first lady's love of candlelight which she favors to make guests feel as if they're at home, even when they're part of a large group, said Bryan Rafanelli, the event planner for the evening.

The space, saturated with warm pinks and reds, will be decorated with roses and orchids representing the United States and Kenya.

"As guests leave their path illuminated by our one moon," said Biden. "I hope they will be filled with the same warmth that I felt on my visits to Kenya.”

S wapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY.   You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal

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Putin’s China Visit Highlights Military Ties That Worry the West

The Russian leader visited an institute in Harbin known for defense research. President Xi Jinping saw him off with a rare and seemingly deliberate embrace for the cameras.

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By David Pierson

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia attended a trade fair on Friday in a northeastern Chinese city and toured a state-backed university famous for its cutting-edge defense research, highlighting how economic and military ties between the countries have grown despite, or perhaps because of, Western pressure.

Mr. Putin’s visit to Harbin, a Chinese city with a Russian past, is part of a trip aimed at demonstrating that he has powerful friends even as his war against Ukraine — a campaign that he is escalating — has isolated him from the West. The visit followed a day of talks between him and President Xi Jinping of China that seemed orchestrated to convey not only the strategic alignment of the two powerful, autocratic leaders against the West, but a personal connection.

State media showed Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi, neckties off after formal talks on Thursday, strolling under willow trees and sipping tea at a traditional pavilion on the sprawling grounds of Zhongnanhai, the walled leadership compound in Beijing, with only their interpreters. As Mr. Xi saw Mr. Putin off in the evening, he even initiated a hug — a rare expression of affection for the Chinese leader.

“Xi’s very deliberate embrace of Putin for the cameras wasn’t just to emphasize the closeness of the political relationship between the two countries and their leaders,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. “There was also a touch of disdain directed at Washington, which has been pressuring Beijing to withdraw support from Moscow. That clearly isn’t going to happen in any substantive fashion.”

The show of camaraderie was the final touch in talks that culminated in a joint statement that took aim at the United States, which Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi have accused of seeking to suppress their countries. The statement pledged that Russia and China would work more closely in critical sectors like energy, space and the military.

The large size of Russia’s delegation, which included Mr. Putin’s top security and energy officials, as well the length of the bilateral meetings, implied the seriousness with which both sides have approached the negotiations, said Alexander Gabuev, a China expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

“It’s like an iceberg,” he said. “The public documents are symbolic and largely meaningless. But there’s an underwater part, which is likely to be much more significant.”

Still, Mr. Putin’s visit also showed the limits of the countries alliance. In China, Mr. Xi rolled out the red carpet for Mr. Putin, but the visit did not produce any public commitments to concrete new projects or investments between the two countries.

Specifically, Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi have not publicly reported any progress on a planned new gas pipeline from China into Russia, known as Power of Siberia 2. Russia urgently needs the pipeline to redirect the flow of its gas exports from the rapidly declining market in Europe.

Mr. Putin had no news to share about the pipeline’s progress when he was asked about it in a brief news conference at the end of his trip on Friday.

“I am not prepared to discuss any technical details, but the interest of both sides in realizing these projects has been confirmed,” Mr. Putin said, referring to Power of Siberia 2.

He also deflected a question about reports that Chinese banks are reducing transactions with Russian clients out of fear of Western sanctions, turning the conversation from China to the shortcomings of the U.S. financial system.

The growing security ties between the two nuclear-armed powers was a focal point of Mr. Putin’s visit to Harbin, and the Harbin Institute of Technology.

While China and Russia are not formal allies committed to defend each other with military support, their armed forces have worked together more closely in recent years. Their air forces and navies have held joint military exercises, including near Alaska and Taiwan, the de facto independent island claimed by Beijing. On Thursday, the two leaders issued words of support for their separate claims to Taiwan and Ukraine.

And while China has vowed not to provide Russia with lethal weapons, it has been the top supplier of components like semiconductors and machine tools that have both civilian and military uses.

While that is helpful, Mr. Putin still seeks access to more sophisticated tools. The Harbin institute is best known for its research of rockets, missiles and space technology — expertise that Russia would greatly benefit from as the war in Ukraine has revived its need for a more robust military-industrial complex. The institute also trained North Korean scientists who worked on Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, according to The Wall Street Journal and South Korean media.

Mr. Putin’s tour of the institute was steeped in symbolism. The 103-year-old institution recently opened a joint campus with St. Petersburg State University, Mr. Putin’s alma mater. And in something of a snub to Washington, the school belongs on the United States’ so-called entity list, barring it from accessing American technology and taking part in educational exchanges because of its links to the People’s Liberation Army.

“We should be less concerned about what particular technologies China might be sharing with Russia from Harbin or elsewhere, than the larger pattern and signal that this visit represents,” said Markus Garlauskas, a security expert at the Atlantic Council.

“China did not need to host Putin at Harbin in order to transfer technologies from there to Russia,” he added. “That this visit took place so openly is a visible and symbolic sign of Beijing being willing to provide directly military-applicable technology to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

Song Zhongping, a commentator in Beijing who is a former military officer, defended Mr. Putin’s visit to the institute, pointing to the school’s cooperation with Russia in education.

“Communication at the university level between China and Russia is consistent with the academic exchange and national interests of both countries,” Mr. Song said.

Mr. Garlauskas said the tour of the institute had echoes of when Mr. Putin hosted Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, at a Russian spaceport last year before Pyongyang began supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles and other munitions to use in Ukraine.

“What China shares with Russia, Russia could easily then turn around and share with North Korea,” Mr. Garlauskas said.

Not long ago, it was China that drew greater benefits from access to Russian military technology. Starting in the 1990s, and peaking in the early 2000s, Beijing was a major buyer of Russian arms. Sales then began to slow after Moscow grew concerned about China reverse-engineering Russian weapons, said Elizabeth Wishnick, a senior research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses in Virginia.

It wasn’t until about a decade ago that cooperation between the two sides returned, leading to China’s acquisition of more Russian jet engine technology and surface-to-air missile systems. Still, in a sign that there are limits to its cooperation with China, Russia is holding out sharing its silent submarine technology, a feature that makes the vessels especially hard to detect, Ms. Wishnick said.

Mr. Putin is also using his visit to Harbin, where he attended a trade fair, to promote the flow of goods between the countries.

China has given Russia an economic lifeline by buying huge amounts of Russian oil to circumvent the effects of its financial isolation from the West. Not only that, with many foreign consumer brands also leaving Russia, Chinese companies have stepped in to fill a vacuum for the likes of automobiles , smartphones and televisions. That contributed to a record $240 billion in two-way trade between the China and Russia in 2023, up from $190 billion in 2022, according to Chinese customs data.

Maintaining that growth in trade is a major focus in both countries, analysts said, now that Western pressure on Chinese banks to scale back transactions with Russian firms is believed to have led to the first year-on-year decline in trade in more than two years in March.

One solution would be to increase the amount of transactions settled in local currencies rather than dollars to avoid the risk of sanctions. Mr. Putin said on Thursday that more than 90 percent of commercial transactions conducted between Russia and China were now being cleared in rubles or renminbi.

“Protecting the financial assets of big banks in China is the top crucial interest of China,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University in Beijing. He said China was trying to reduce its exposure to the dollar beyond just in Russia, but that the room to do so was “limited.”

Olivia Wang and Anatoly Kurmanaev contributed reporting.

David Pierson covers Chinese foreign policy and China’s economic and cultural engagement with the world. He has been a journalist for more than two decades. More about David Pierson

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

In recent days, Ukraine has conducted a series of drone attacks inside Russia  that target radar stations used as early nuclear warning systems by Moscow.

Top Ukrainian military officials have warned that Russia is building up troops near northeastern Ukraine , raising fears that a new offensive push could be imminent.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that the Biden administration could be open to allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons inside Russia  as President Biden comes under increasing pressure  to lift restrictions.

Zelensky Interview: In an interview with the New York Times, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine challenged the West  over its reluctance to take bolder action.

Russia’s RT Network : RT, which the U.S. State Department describes as a key player in the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus, has been blocked in Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine. Its content is still spreading .

Striking a Chord: A play based on a classic 19th-century novel, “The Witch of Konotop,” is a smash hit among Ukrainians who see cultural and historical echoes  in the story of what they face after two years of war.

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