Secretary of State, John Kerry met Prime Minister Modi hoping to reach agreements before President Obama reaches India as chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. Obama is the first ever American President to be the Chief Guest at this military parade and the first sitting President to visit India twice.
Negotiations between the U.S. and India on issues such as climate change, trade policy, and civil nuclear liability have renewed in intensity reports Bloomberg Businessweek.
Kerry said climate change is “one enormous cloud hanging over all of us which requires responsibility from leaders.” Referring to Modi’s commitment to expand wind and solar energy and increase agricultural resilience, Kerry said those goals created an opportunity for companies to develop “cutting-edge technologies, equipment, capital and know-how, not just to India but to countless countries that need this growth and development now.”
Mr. Kerry stressed that the United States wanted to increase trade with India to $500 billion a year, a significant leap from $97 billion in 2013. “We can do more together, and we must do more together, and we have to do it faster,” he added
India’s leaders are eager for more foreign investment to energize the nation’s economy, and Mr. Modi affirmed, “We’re trying to complete the circle of economic reforms speedily…we are planning to take a quantum leap,” reported The New York Times.
