The comparison is inevitable given the way the visits are juxtaposed, and the hyphenation and triangulation between the three countries. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarks on his second official visit to the United States this week, Washington is gearing up to receive China’s President Xi JinPing, whose trip is been locked in between a US-India strategic and commercial dialogue that began here today and President Obama’s meeting with India’s Prime Minister in New York next Monday.
Having struggled for long to get out of China’s shadow on account of the headstart Beijing got on the reforms and global ambition front, New Delhi is now seeking a helping hand from the United States to catch up, and on this Monday, Washington is pulling out all stops to show the world it keen to develop India as an economic and strategic counterweight to China.
Trade and industry mavens from both sides, headlined by their respective commerce ministers and secretaries, talked up business ties, and their strategic counterparts are slated to hear sage words from vice-president Joe Biden later this evening on a partnership that both sides publicly say is not aimed at China.
But even a cursory look at trade figures involving the three countries shows the yawning gap China has opened up, a mismatch that in some ways is propelling Washington and New Delhi to address their own anemic commercial relationship. Two-way ties between U.S and India ticked over $ 100 billion only in 2014, even as U.S-China
Without mentioning the dragon in the room, US and India have set a $ 500 billion target (with no deadline to achieve this) even as ties between Washington and Beijing are cooling off with the U.S seeing China as a potential competitor for its global influence, instead of the complementary partnership role it sees for India. Ahead of Xi’s visit (and the meeting with Modi next week), President Obama maintained that it is in US interest for China to continue a ”peaceful, orderly rise,” but the two countries need to reach an understanding about the U.S presence as a Pacific power, a foothold that ensures the security of several US allies, notably Japan and South Korea.
Obama also acknowledged that cybersecurity would be a hot button issue between the two sides and issue would require some ”tough negotiations,” given recent charges of Beijing’s hacking activities. As if to show that China was unmindful of the charges, Xi is starting his visit from Seattle, where he is expected to meet Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, and later Apple’s Tim Cook and IBM’s Ginni Rometty. China’s export to the US of communications and computer goods alone is more than the entire U.S-India trade.
Lacking such heft, New Delhi is also seeking manufacturing prowess, and much of Prime Minister Modi’s meetings later this week is geared towards rolling out the red carpet for U.S financial and corporate titans even as his associates are busy assuring the administration and lawmakers that India is not taking away US jobs, something China does not even bother to contest even though it has ravaged the American manufacturing sector.
On Monday, commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman released a report by NASSCOM, dispelling the ”myth” that India was bleeding American jobs, and instead claiming to support more than 410,000 jobs in the US India has had to be defensive on this front because loss of skilled, white-collar jobs is causing more heartburn in the US than the manufacturing jobs that countries such as China and Mexico have drained.
Source from India Defence News.
