New Delhi: India on Thursday said that the visit of the American President Donald Trump here next week, the first stand alone visit by a U.S. President to India, should be seen in the context of reaching a certain stage of maturity in Indo-US relationship and the growing comfort level between the two countries.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that regular meetings between the leaders of two democracies -- President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- have taken place over the past three years and the two leaders have personally invested in this relationship.
The visit of President Trump is likely to further strengthen the global strategic partnership with India.
“Over the years, the canvas of our relationship has expanded to include several new areas. We enjoy a broad level of support from the executive branch as well as bipartisan support by the Congress. There has been growing intensity in ministerial visits. We had a very successful and outcome rich second meeting of India-US 2+2 Ministerial in December last year. Our defence relations have expanded by concluding enabling agreements like LEMOA and COMCASA. We have initiated a joint tri-services HADR exercise Tiger Triumph as an annual exercise,'' MEA's official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told journalists at a media briefing here.
Being India's largest trading partner in goods and services, the U.S. has also cooperated increasingly in counter terrorism and promised partnership in the Indo-Pacific.
“We expect that the talks will deepen our engagement in all the above areas. It would also give an opportunity to exchange views on regional and global issues of shared interests,'' he said.
On the H1B visa issue, the spokesperson said it was important for India and the discussion on it could take place during talks between the two leaders.
President Trump, accompanied by wife Melania, and a high-level delegation, will land around noon on February 24 in Ahmedabad.
The U.S. President will squeeze in a trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal the same evening and then travel to New Delhi for the third and main leg of the visit.
The spokesperson said that India has remained engaged on the H1B visa issue with the government and US Congress.
“In the partnership, we feel Indians have contributed to the progress of the U.S. economy. We do expect that movement of Indian professionals is part of the agenda that could come up for discussions," he added.
On the trade talks, he said the two sides have been engaging for some time.
“We hope to reach an understanding with an outcome that strikes the right balance for both sides. We do not want to rush into a deal as the issues involved are complicated with many decisions potentially having real impact on people’s lives and long-term economic consequences. We do not want to create artificial deadlines,'' Mr Kumar said.
The bilateral trade has already been growing at more than 10% per annum for the past two years, and the trade deficit has been declining steadily.
“Our trade will become even more balanced with increasing imports of US oil and gas, and purchase of large numbers of civil aircraft by India over the next few years. The US is now our 6th largest source of crude oil imports, while we have become the US’s 4th largest customer of crude oil,'' he said.
On space cooperation, the spokesperson said that India and the U.S. have a long history of cooperation in civil space arena including earth observation, satellite navigation, and space exploration. There is a Joint Working Group to regularly review cooperation and identify new areas.
“Currently, our sides are cooperating in Mars exploration, heliophysics, and human spaceflight. On commercial front, ISRO has launched 209 satellites from US, on-board PSLV, as co passengers,'' he said.
ISRO and NASA are together building a microwave remote sensing satellite with dual frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar.
NASA will contribute L-band Radar, while ISRO will contribute S-band Radar and the satellite.
This joint mission is planned to be realised for launch in 2022.
This is the world’s first dual frequency SAR satellite.
ISRO is also working with U.S. Government agencies for cooperation in safety of spaceflight through exchange of situational awareness information.
Referring to Nuclear cooperation with the US, the spokesperson pointed out that Westinghouse and NPCIL are in discussion to build six 1100 MW reactors at Kovvada, Andhra Pradesh.
Following resolution of Westinghouse’s bankruptcy issues, the two sides are in discussion regarding the division of responsibility of the work.
NPCIL has visited the U.S. reference plant to understand Westinghouse’s modular construction methodology.
