India and the US will pursue ways in which they can deepen their partnership on climate, clean energy, security and defense, the Biden administration said after Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
They discussed US-India cooperation on addressing the climate crisis and raising global ambition heading into President Biden's Leaders Summit on Climate April 22-23, the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later this year, and beyond, the State Department said.
Kerry and Modi affirmed that given the two nations' shared desire to combat climate change and complementary strengths, the USA and India can creatively collaborate on a 2030 agenda for clean and green technologies in the service of the planet.
"Officials of the two countries will pursue ways in which they can deepen their partnership on climate and clean energy in this critical decade," the State Department said in a readout of Kerry's India travel.
During the meeting, Kerry highlighted Biden's support for the enduring comprehensive global strategic partnership with India and the importance of two of the world's largest economies leading together on climate action.
There was broad consensus on the value of enhanced bilateral cooperation across multiple areas, including mobilising finance to support clean energy deployment at scale; cooperating on adaptation and resilience; and collaborating on innovation and scaling up emerging technologies for energy storage, green hydrogen, clean industrial processes, and sustainable urbanisation and agriculture, the State Department said.
In related news, former American defence secretary Ash Carter said a deepening partnership between the US and India in the military and security sphere is "destined to occur" as there is too much in common between the two large democracies that share really good values.
"In fact, it is destined. I think it's in fact destined to occur because there's just too much in common between us… In interests, in functioning,” Carter, who was defence secretary from 2015 to 2017 under the Obama administration, said when asked if he felt going forward by deepening partnership with India that extends powerfully to the military and security sphere.
"I'll give you an example. The last conversation I had with (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi when I was in office. He and I were reflecting on something that wasn't germane to every particular that we were discussing. But I was remarking to him, how many Indian and Indian-American entrepreneurs there were in the tech world, in the United States. And I said, there's something kindred about mentalities there,” he said.
Carter, however, cautioned that the United States must be aware of the past, including India's policies of non-alignment and its historic military ties with Russia.