Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in the United States and has a packed agenda ahead of the first in-person meeting of the Quad nations - US, India, Australia and Japan.

Vaccine supplies to the Indo-Pacific and security challenges in the region will be high on the priority list.

But before that, the Prime Minister and US President Joe Biden will hold their first bilateral in-person meeting where they will review the comprehensive strategic partnership as well as cooperation between the countries in addressing the COVID-19 outbreak. Talks on Afghanistan are also on the agenda along with discussions on trade, defence and counter-terrorism.

In an interview to Parikshit Luthra, Former Indian Envoy to US Meera Shankar said, "Prime Minister Modi will flag the fact that India is ready to absorb investment and that the Indian economy is recovering from the severe downturn that it faced in the wake of the COVID pandemic. I think there is a moment here where countries are looking to de-risk and companies are also looking to de-risk their supply chains and therefore move some production away from China."

"For India, we are looking at creating manufacturing capacities. If you look at Quad, one of the issues on the agenda is the question of critical technologies and how to de-risk their supply chains or ensure that there are no monopolies that enhance the vulnerability of these countries," Shankar added.

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Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow at Gateway House said, "Fundamentally if we are talking about communication between the two governments - India and the US, I think we have to recognise that this year has been a year of very close, easy and frequent communications. This visit is preceded by so many exchanges earlier. The relevant ministers have been here from the US to India and our ministers have gone to the US and at the official level also, there have been a number of discussions."

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"One of the highlights of the visit will be the Quad Summit and it is really wonderful that the Quad Summit will be preceded by the bilateral between the President and the Prime Minister. So the Quad Summit is going to focus on almost everything - strategic, political, key economic issues and they are going to take a long-term view of the emerging situation in the Indo-Pacific," he added.

Lisa Curtis of CNAS said, "In the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Biden, Afghanistan will be one of the key issues. I expect that Prime Minister Modi would raise it and raise Indian concerns that we will see a terrorist safe haven re-emerge in the country following the Taliban takeover."

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"I think India is probably concerned that President Biden wants to wash his hands off Afghanistan and wants to focus on other issues but the point here is that if terror safe haven re-emerges in Afghanistan then that is going to draw everyone's attention back to the country and it will prevent India from being able to extend its power and influence into East Asia, South East Asia and rest of the Indo-Pacific," she added.

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(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Sept 23, 2021 10:04 PM IST