New Delhi, Sep 8: US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday exuded confidence that the outcomes of the G20 Summit will advance the shared goals of accelerating sustainable development, bolstering multilateral cooperation and building consensus around inclusive economic policies to address greatest global challenges.
In their over 50-minute talks, Modi and Biden vowed to “deepen and diversify” the bilateral major defence partnership while welcoming forward movement in India’s procurement of 31 drones and joint development of jet engines.
The two leaders also deliberated on cooperation in nuclear energy, critical and emerging technologies such as 6G and artificial intelligence, and ways to fundamentally “reshape” multilateral development banks.
A joint statement issued at the end of the talks said President Biden lauded India’s G20 Presidency for further “demonstrating” how the G20 as a forum is delivering important outcomes.
His comments came a day ahead of the leaders of the Group of 20 large economies hold deliberations on pressing global challenges and ways to deal with them at the bloc’s annual summit in New Delhi.
Biden arrived in Delhi at around 7 pm in his first visit to India as the US President. He was greeted at the airport with songs and a musical show.
“The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the G20 and expressed confidence that the outcomes of the G20 Leaders’ summit in New Delhi will advance the shared goals of accelerating sustainable development, bolstering multilateral cooperation, and building global consensus around inclusive economic policies to address our greatest common challenges, including fundamentally reshaping and scaling up multilateral development banks,” it said.
The joint statement said the “leaders re-emphasised that the shared values of freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, pluralism, and equal opportunities for all citizens are critical to the success our countries enjoy and that these values strengthen our relationship”.
The PMO said in a statement that Modi conveyed his appreciation for President Biden’s vision and commitment to further strengthen the India-US comprehensive global strategic partnership, which is based on shared democratic values, strategic convergences and strong people-to-people ties.
It said the two leaders commended the progress in implementing the futuristic and wide-ranging outcomes of the prime minister’s historic State visit to the US in June 2023, including under the India-US Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).
“The leaders welcomed the sustained momentum in bilateral cooperation , including in the areas of defence, trade, investment, education, health, research, innovation, culture and people-to-people ties,” it said. (PTI)
