President Biden Meets Virtually with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India 4/11/22 Transcript

President Joe Biden: (00:00)
I was honored to welcome you to the White House last September, to discuss US-Indian relations, to meet with our fellow quad leaders. And I’m pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you today, virtually, and with your two ministers and your ambassador, here in person. Is it contemporaneous? [inaudible 00:00:24] Oh, I’m sorry. As two vibrant democracies who, one is learning how to make sure I can do this contemporaneously. We take the same concerns about the global challenges we face with COVID 19, advancing health security and tracking the climate crisis. We share a strong and growing, major defense partnership. At the root of our partnership is a deep connection between our people, ties of family, of friendship and of shared values.

President Joe Biden: (01:00)
On that note, I want to welcome India’s humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine who are suffering a horrific assault, including a tragic shelling on a train station last week that killed dozens of innocent children and women and civilians attempting to flee the violence. The United States and India are going to continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilizing effects of this Russian war. And I’m looking forward discussions today, Mr Prime Minister, our continued consultation and dialogue are key to ensuring the US-Indian relationship continues to grow deeper and stronger, delivering our people and our global good that we all are seeking to manage, particularly in your part of the world. And the floor is yours. Mr Prime Minister.

Translator for Prime Minister Modi: (02:03)
President Biden. I would like to first of all, express my gratitude to you for your warm words. Our defense and foreign ministers will be meeting today in the 2+2 format in a short while from now. Our meeting before that is very important, as it will provide direction for the discussions. I also appreciate your initiative to organize today’s virtual meeting. Excellency, when I was in Washington last year, in September, and you in fact mentioned that, you had said at the time that the India-America partnership can contribute to solving a lot of global problems. I totally agree with you, as two democracies that are the world’s largest and oldest. We are natural partners and the progress that has taken place in our relations in the last few years, the new momentum that has been created, would have been hard to even imagine a few decades ago. Excellency, our talks today taking place at a time when the situation in Ukraine is very worrying. A few weeks ago, over 20,000 Indians were stuck in Ukraine, and most of them were young students. After a lot of hard work, we were successful in getting them all out safely.

Translator for Prime Minister Modi: (04:04)
One student, however, lost his life. During this entire process, I spoke several times on the phone to the presidents of both Ukraine and Russia. I not only appeal for peace, but also suggested that there be direct talks between President Putin and the president of Ukraine. We had extensive discussions on Ukraine in our parliament as well. Recently, the news about the killings of innocent civilians in the Bucha city was very worrying. We instantly condemned the killings and have called for an independent inquiry. We hope that the ongoing discussions between Russia and Ukraine will lead to peace. Excellency, we have also emphasized the importance of the security of civilians in Ukraine and the unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance to them, and you mentioned this in fact.

Translator for Prime Minister Modi: (05:27)
On our part, we have sent medicines and other relief material to Ukraine and to its neighboring countries. And on Ukraine’s request, we will be sending them another consignment of medicine very soon. Excellency, at the beginning of your term in office, you had used a very important slogan, “Democracies can deliver the India-America partnership and the success of the India-America partnership is the best means to make this slogan meaningful. This year, India is celebrating 75 years of its independence, and we are also celebrating the anniversary of our diplomatic relations as well. I am confident that our friendship with America will be an integral part of India’s development journey over the next 25 years. Once again, my thanks to you for organizing this event.

President Joe Biden: (06:38)
Prime Minister.