US Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday as he sought to calm fears over the exit of US troops from Afghanistan and capitalise on investment opportunities. Biden also met President Pranab Mukherjee and a top opposition party figure, Sushma Swaraj, and was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by his counterpart Hamid Ansari in the capital late Tuesday.
Biden, the most senior US official to visit India since President Barack Obama in 2010, discussed with Singh the security situation in Afghanistan during a 75-minute meeting, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The vice president has said the world's two largest democracies share common goals on a range of regional security issues.
But there is widespread unease among Indian leaders over what will happen in Afghanistan once US troops have left in 2014, with many fearing that Pakistan has most to gain from the withdrawal. Ansari told the banquet honouring Biden that "peace in the world and in our region is a requisite for sustained and sustainable development". "Threats to peace, many in India's immediate region are the greatest impediments to progress," he added, citing such dangers as terrorism, extremism and misuse of technology.
He said it was up to both nations to "counter these threats jointly and individually". During talks, the pair confirmed that Singh will meet Obama during a six-day visit to Washington from September 20, the semi-official Press Trust of India quoted sources as saying. They also discussed implementation of a landmark civil nuclear deal and ways to build up two-way commerce, the sources said.
Boosting bilateral trade was expected to form the cornerstone of a keynote speech Biden was slated to make in Mumbai on Wednesday. India has spent more than $2 billion of aid in Afghanistan since the Taliban, hard-line Islamists who were strong allies of Pakistan, were toppled in a 2001 US-led invasion. Even though plans for talks between the US and the Taliban collapsed last month, the possible return to power of the insurgents alarms many in India.
Writing in The Times of India on Tuesday, Washington-based commentator Seema Sirohi reflected a widespread feeling in New Delhi that the departure of US troops would be a major boost for Pakistan. "Biden, as one of the original proponents of the pullback of US troops from Afghanistan, is well positioned to explain why the Americans have handed the keys to Kabul to Pakistani generals," she wrote.
"Americans may close their eyes to the reality but it is impossible for India to do so. Biden should understand that." In an interview ahead of his arrival, Biden said the Taliban had a part to play in the political process as long as they renounced violence. "Our goal is for Afghans to be talking to Afghans about how they can move forward, end the violence and start rebuilding their country," he told The Times of India.
"We have been clear that if the Taliban are to have any role in Afghanistan's political future, they will need to break ties with al Qaeda, stop supporting violence and accept the Afghan constitution as part of the outcomes of any negotiated peace settlement." Indian and US officials have pointed to Biden's visit as a chance to heat up the investment climate and raise the level of bilateral trade, which is on course to reach around $100 billion a year.
But in a sign of the frustration among American investors over the obstacles they face in doing business in India, a Washington-based lobby wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to address what it called "India's unfair trade and intellectual property practices".