Por Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (Reuters) – The United States and India have sealed an alliance that US President Joe Biden hopes will help both countries compete against China in military equipment, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
Washington wants to roll out more Western mobile phone networks to the subcontinent to counter China’s Huawei Technologies, welcome more Indian computer chip specialists to the United States and encourage companies from both countries to collaborate on military equipment such as artillery systems.
The White House faces an uphill battle on each of these fronts, with US restrictions on the transfer of military technology and visas for immigrant workers, along with India’s long-standing reliance on Moscow for military hardware.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, meet this Tuesday at the White House with senior officials from both countries to launch the US-India Initiative on Strategic and Emerging Technologies.
“The great challenge posed by China – its economic practices, its aggressive military maneuvers, its efforts to dominate the industries of the future and control the supply chains of the future – has had a profound impact on thinking in New Delhi,” Sullivan said.
Doval will also meet US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken during his three-day visit to Washington, which ends on Wednesday.
New Delhi has made Washington uncomfortable by engaging in military exercises with Russia and increasing purchases of the country’s crude, a key source of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine. But Washington has bitten its tongue, nudged the country on Russia, while approving of India’s more bellicose stance on China.
On Monday, Sullivan and Doval participated in a US Chamber of Commerce event with business leaders from arms maker Lockheed Martin Corp, Adani Enterprises and Applied Materials Inc.
Although India is part of the US government’s Asia engagement project, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), it has chosen not to join the IPEF trade pillar negotiations.
The initiative also includes a joint effort in space and high-performance quantum computing.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; additional reporting by Krishn Kaushik in Delhi; editing by Chris Sanders, Josie Kao, Himani Sarkar, YP Rajesh and Gerry Doyle; editing in Spanish by Dario Fernandez)
