The prime minister’s office released a handful of official photographs of the meeting, showing the two leaders seated side by side and chatting amiably.
Biden and Modi last met in person in June when the Indian leader was the guest of a White House state visit. The two men were expected to advance a number of agreements reached in June, including a deal to allow General Electric (GE.N) to produce jet engines in India to power Indian military aircraft.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined Friday’s meeting, as did White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the White House said in a statement. Indian attendees included external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and security adviser Ajit Doval.
Though the countries are not formal treaty-bound allies and India has long relished its independence, Washington wants Delhi to be a strategic counterweight to China.
Armed with cash for the World Bank and promises of sustained U.S. engagement, Biden hopes to persuade fast-growing economies in Africa, Latin America and Asia that there is an alternative to China’s Belt and Road project, which has funneled billions of dollars to developing countries but left many deeply in debt.
After the G20, Biden is to visit Vietnam before returning to the United States later on Monday.
CRITICISM OF PRESS FREEDOMS
Questions about press access on the India trip have been persistent, after the official White House schedule did not show that the usual pool of reporters would be allowed in for the start of the Modi-Biden meeting.
Biden spoke to Modi about the importance of a healthy democracy, Campbell told reporters. “He doesn’t do this in such a way that suggests that one country is lecturing to another but rather that we all face shared challenges,” he said.
Campbell said he would not be drawn into a discussion about press access, saying Biden preferred to address such topics privately.
The press pool from the United States, made up of representatives of major news organizations, accompanies the president on foreign and domestic trips and normally has some access to major events. News organizations reimburse the U.S. government completely for the cost of the trips, and it is extremely rare for them to be barred completely.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech and the press in the United States, while freedom and expression of speech is protected in Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.
Modi, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has faced criticism about shrinking press freedom in India since he took office. The government says India has a vibrant free press.
Modi, who rarely meets the press or answers journalist’s questions in India, was asked by an American reporter at a joint news conference with Biden at the White House in June about his human rights record.
His allies attacked the reporter afterward, in a targeted online harassment campaign that the White House later called “unacceptable” and “antithetical to the very principles of democracy.”
By Reuters