President Biden emphasized common ground with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during a lavish state visit on Thursday, publicly skirting points of friction over the government’s crackdown on human rights in India and Russia’s war in Ukraine in hopes of bolstering economic and geopolitical ties with the world’s most populous nation.
The president treated Mr. Modi to a day of red-carpet pageantry and showered him with expansive flattery as he sought to draw India closer at a time when the United States finds itself locked in open conflict with Moscow and in an uneasy standoff with China. But even as the leaders announced a range of initiatives, they made no evident progress resolving the disagreements that have strained the relationship in recent months.
The visit’s most surprising breakthrough was a modest if notable one as Mr. Biden coaxed Mr. Modi into taking questions from reporters at a joint news conference, apparently the first time the nationalist prime minister has done so in his nearly decade-long tenure. Challenged on his record on human rights and religious freedom, Mr. Modi insisted that democracy is “in India’s DNA” and denied that his government has fostered prejudice in serving its people.
“Democracy is our spirit. Democracy runs in our veins. We live democracy,” Mr. Modi said as Mr. Biden watched in the East Room of the White House. “In India’s democratic values, there’s absolutely no discrimination neither on basis of caste, creed, or age, or any kind of geographic location,” Mr. Modi added, even as demonstrators outside the White House gates protested the crackdown on dissent back in India.
While Mr. Biden shied away from criticism of India’s democratic backsliding, he stood by his characterization of President Xi Jinping of China as a “dictator” during a campaign fund-raiser earlier this week. Avoiding “the facts with regard to” China, he told reporters, “is just not something I’m going to change very much.” But he shrugged off the protests from Beijing, saying that he still expected to meet with Mr. Xi later this year despite his remark. “I don’t think it’s had any real consequence.”
The state visit for Mr. Modi was the latest move on the geopolitical chess board as Mr. Biden seeks more allies against increasingly aggressive governments in Moscow and Beijing. India, which remained staunchly nonaligned during the Cold War, has refused to join the American-led coalition aiding Ukraine in its war against invading Russian forces. And while India shares a certain enmity for China, it has not fully subscribed to Washington’s strategy for restraining the Asian giant in the Indo-Pacific region or defending Taiwan against aggression.
In cultivating Mr. Modi, who before becoming prime minister was denied a U.S. visa because of his role in a deadly religious riot in his home state, Mr. Biden put aside his language about “democracy versus autocracy” being the defining struggle of his time. In his welcome remarks and the later appearance before reporters, Mr. Biden described the two countries as fellow democracies committed to universal values without directly mentioning the increasing suppression of minority groups and opposition voices in India.
Officials previewing the visit said the president would raise human rights issues during his private meetings with Mr. Modi, but in briefing reporters they used the word “respectful” more than once to characterize Mr. Biden’s approach. In their moments before cameras together on Thursday, Mr. Biden pronounced America’s partnership with India “the most consequential in the world.”
Mr. Modi offered no indication that he had changed his mind about Russia or China, much less about human rights at home. Indeed, during an address to a joint session of Congress after meeting with the president, Mr. Modi avoided even using the words “Russia” or “China,” sticking to passive formulations.
“With the Ukraine conflict, war has returned to Europe,” he said, without saying who started the war. And he warned of “dark clouds of coercion and confrontation” that are “casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific” without saying who was doing the coercing or the confronting.
Pre-empting criticism, Mr. Modi portrayed India as the “mother of democracy,” as he put it, using the word “democracy” at least 16 times in an hourlong speech. “We are home to all faiths in the world and we celebrate all of them,” he said, without mentioning repression of Muslims and other minorities.
Cheered on by supporters who packed the House galleries, interrupted his speech with applause dozens of times and chanted “Modi! Modi!” as if it were a campaign rally, the prime minister rattled off a series of statistics about India’s progress in recent years.
Among other things, the prime minister pointedly noted that his country has grown from the world’s 10th largest economy when he last addressed Congress in 2016 to the fifth largest today, almost as if determined to force the United States to see India as a near equal, not just an emerging power, but a great and rising one.
Despite his warm greeting in the chamber, several liberal Democrats in Congress boycotted Mr. Modi’s speech. “A joint address is among the most prestigious invitations and honors the United States Congress can extend,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on Twitter. “We should not do so for individuals with deeply troubling human rights records.”
Analysts expressed skepticism about Mr. Biden’s strategy. “The ease with which the Biden administration cast aside its commitment to supporting democracy over autocracy was breathtaking in its eagerness to please Prime Minister Modi,” said Meenakshi Ahamed, author of “A Matter of Trust,” a history of ties between Indian leaders and American presidents.
But she said she doubted that it would do much good. “If the U.S. expects that it can flatter Modi into security commitments in the Indo-Pacific that will translate into military support against China if Taiwan becomes a conflict zone, the U.S. is deluding itself and has failed to understand what drives Indo-U. S. relations.”
Mr. Biden celebrated India’s rise with a display of pomp and circumstance on the South Lawn complete with marching bands, honor guards and a 21-gun salute. He wrapped up the day of meetings with a gala state dinner, only the third of his presidency, in a pavilion behind the White House draped in green with saffron-colored flowers at every table, the colors of the Indian flag. Lotus blossoms, an important symbol in India, were incorporated throughout the décor and images of the bald eagle and the peacock, the national birds of the two countries, were displayed as the backdrop for the leaders’ toasts.
The White House offered a vegetarian meal of stuffed portobello mushrooms and creamy saffron-infused risotto in accordance with Mr. Modi’s vegetarian diet, with an optional fish entree for those who requested it. Joshua Bell, the Grammy-winning violinist, was tapped to perform, along with Penn Masala, a South Asian a cappella group founded by students at the University of Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Marine Band chamber orchestra.
Among the guests was Hunter Biden, the president’s son who struck an agreement with prosecutors this week to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax crimes, resolving a yearlong investigation that did not validate the more sensational charges of influence peddling lodged by Republicans. Also included was Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who denounced the plea agreement as a sweetheart deal. The president ignored a question shouted at him about the case.
India, whose population recently surpassed China’s to lead the world, represents perhaps the most important of the so-called Global South nations that Mr. Biden is pursuing, both for its economic potential as well as for its geopolitical position. And Mr. Modi, without directly referring to that in his remarks at the arrival ceremony, nonetheless alluded to India’s growing power, mentioning its population of 1.4 billion three times in just a few minutes.
“I’ve long believed that the relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century,” Mr. Biden told a crowd gathered on the South Lawn on a gloomy overcast morning as the events got underway, “two proud nations whose love of freedom secured our independence, bound by the same words in our Constitution, the first three words, ‘we the people.’”
Mr. Modi, dressed in a traditional long vest known as an achkan, thanked Mr. Biden for the honor of a state visit and likewise suggested the two nations could tackle international challenges in tandem. “In the post-Covid era, the world order is taking a new shape,” he said in Hindi. “In this time period, the friendship between India and the U.S. will be instrumental in enhancing the strength of the whole world.”
To mark their ties, the two leaders rolled out a long list of joint initiatives on telecommunications, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other areas. Mr. Modi agreed to sign the Artemis Accords, a set of principles governing peaceful exploration of the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies, and the two will announce a joint mission to the International Space Station in 2024. The United States and India will open additional consulates in each other’s country.
Among the most concrete agreements highlighted on Thursday was a deal between General Electric and the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to manufacture in India F414 engines used to power the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The two sides also announced that India would proceed with a long-stalled $3 billion purchase of MQ-9B Predator drones from General Atomics.
The military hardware sales may help wean India off Russian arms suppliers. Biden administration officials suggested the meeting was just one step in an evolution of India’s stance on the Ukraine war, part of what they characterized as “bending the arc of India’s engagement.”
But Mr. Modi again stressed the need for “dialogue and diplomacy,” adding that “we are completely ready to contribute in any way we can to restore peace,” without condemning Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a neighboring country.
Mr. Biden made no effort in public to pressure Mr. Modi on the matter. Instead, he concentrated on cementing bonds, pointing to the prevalence of Indian Americans in prominent positions in Washington. “We see it here at the White House where proud Americans of Indian heritage serve our country every day — including our vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris,” he said, turning to Ms. Harris standing off to the side.
Ms. Harris, who will host Mr. Modi for lunch on Friday, traces her Indian background to her mother, who emigrated to the United States as a teenager. Mr. Biden cited the story of “a family like so many of ours in our nation that speaks to the thousands of stories of determination, courage and hope.”