Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President of the United States Joe Biden in Washington DC today. Ahead of the talks, US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said, “We’re just getting in the car together and we’re starting this voyage. It’s the elevation of something that has been growing.”
Garcetti said this yesterday as he delivered his keynote address to the inaugural INDUS-X conference organised by the US India Business Council in partnership with the US Department of Defense and India’s Department of Defence Production.
Describing the on-going state visit of Modi to the United States, Garcetti said, “Let us take this watershed moment that is a game-changer and an ecosystem and bring those two things together. Let us see that tonight. This is what it feels like to live through history. This week is one of those moments that can change the course of history.”
The US envoy to India added, “I know our leaders will deliver that, but they’re counting on us to implement that vision together,” he said.
Modi arrived in New York yesterday and reaches Washington DC today for talks with Biden. Tomorrow, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host Prime Minister Modi at a State Dinner. The visit also includes an address by the prime minister to the joint session of the US Congress tomorrow.
‘1.75 billion of them are unstoppable’
Garcetti said that if the people of India and the United States, along with the two heads of state, put their minds together, “we would be a pretty unstoppable force”.
He said, “Two democracies [India and the United States], after all, are about our people. [A total of] 1.75 billion of them are unstoppable, a force for peace, for prosperity, for our planet and for people.”
Referring to climate change mitigation, the envoy said that India and the US could help to preserve the planet, bring peace and look all the way up into the air and beyond.
“So, I hope that we find each other and that we build the blocks of this voyage. Things like the roadmap for defence industry co-operation, which will give us that mechanism to move forward, the technology that we’re leaning in….,” said Garcetti. “I’m proud to be part of an administration that’s leaning in with more courage than we’ve ever seen, not just between the US and India, but I would argue the US and any other country before.”