By Nandita Bose
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden was headed into a closed-door meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday shortly after arriving in New Delhi to participate in a G20 summit over the weekend.
Biden and Modi last met face-to-face in June when the Indian prime minister was the guest of a White House state visit. The two leaders are expected to discuss progress on a number of agreements reached in June, including a deal to allow General Electric to produce jet engines in India to power Indian military aircraft.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will also join.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters ahead of the meeting that the talks would show “the breadth of the relationship between our countries.”
Questions about press access on the trip were persistent. The official White House schedule did not show that the usual pool of reporters would be allowed in for the top of the bilateral meeting.
“Look, guys, we are doing everything that we can to make sure that there is access,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on the Air Force One flight to India.
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.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Editig by Nick Macfie)
