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President Biden will welcome India’s prime minister to the White House for a state visit and lavish dinner next month, giving a valuable diplomatic perk to a critical economic ally but also to a leader who shows authoritarian tendencies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Mr. Biden on June 22, according to a White House statement on Wednesday. It will be the president’s third state dinner, after hosting the leaders of France and South Korea. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said the visit would celebrate “the bonds of family and friendship that bind America and India.”
For Mr. Biden, the visit is an opportunity to draw India closer in terms of economic and security cooperation, especially while countering China’s growing influence in global markets.
Rick Rossow, senior adviser and India chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it is in the United States’ interest to continue working with India, which is one of America’s largest trading partners and a security ally in the region.
“The upside – commercial, security wise – is quite strong where I think you will see a high level of engagement,” he said. “If you look at the numbers, look at bilateral trade and investment, the numbers are really solid.”
But the visit will also test one of Mr. Biden’s favorite observations: that the world is at an inflection point where countries must choose between autocracy and democracy.
Mr Modi, the leader of the world’s most populous democracy, has steadily pushed his country into what is effectively one-party rule, consolidating political power by eliminating rivals and bending the judicial system to his will.
In March, Rahul Gandhi, India’s most prominent opposition leader and the prime minister’s main rival, was sued for defamation over political criticism aimed at Mr Modi. The conviction led to Mr Gandhi’s expulsion from India’s Parliament just months before national elections in which Mr Modi will seek a third term in office.
This is a development Mr. Biden has warned about, both inside the United States when President Donald J. Trump is in office and abroad.
“There is a contest between autocracy and democracy, and we must succeed,” Mr. Biden said last summer during a speech in Madrid. He used the same words again at the United Nations in New York, during his State of the Union address this year and just two weeks ago during a meeting with the president of South Korea at the White House.
Mr Modi, who is very popular in India, has adopted some of the same political approaches as his predecessor Mr Biden.
By and large, Indian leaders have embraced Mr. Trump as a kind of kindred spirit. Both rose to power by embracing right-wing populism and claiming to be champions of the people against the corrupt establishment. Both promised to make their country “great again”. And both exploit religious, economic and cultural divisions.
During his 2019 political tour through the United States, he was called “Hello, Modi!” the prime minister spoke glowingly of Mr. Trump in front of 50,000 Americans in the Houston stadium.
“Every time, he has been the same – warm, friendly, accessible, energetic and full of wit,” Mr Modi said of Mr Trump. “I admire him for other things: his sense of leadership, his passion for America, his concern for every American, his belief in America’s future and his strong determination to make America better.”
Mr Rossow said barring Mr Gandhi from Parliament “probably registered more” among those concerned about Mr Modi’s actions. But he said Mr Modi had also pushed India to shift power from the central government to the states, even though many local governments were not controlled by his political party.
As a result, he said, Mr. Biden is likely to focus on more general issues common to both countries when Mr. Modi arrives in Washington. The two will also meet later this month during Mr Biden’s visit to Australia for a summit.
The United States is increasingly hoping that India can help act as a bulwark against China’s growing economic influence. Last year, Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, visited India in an effort to strengthen ties as the United States seeks to move its supply chain out of the grip of its political and economic adversaries.
Mr. Biden’s administration is trying to encourage chipmakers and others to move facilities to places like India, rather than continue to depend on China. That desire has intensified in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has helped disrupt global supplier networks, particularly for high-tech goods.
“If they really start playing around with the election they’re having, if they take dramatic steps to destroy the livelihoods of Muslims in the country, then I think it could be a lot harder,” Mr. Rossow said of Mr. Modi and his government. in India. But now, he added, the United States will rise to the challenge.
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