Discussed Shared Concerns Like Covid-19 and Climate Change: PM Modi After Phone Call with Joe Biden

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday spoke to United States President-elect Joe Biden over phone and congratulated him on the victory in the elections. Modi said both countries also discussed their bilateral commitments and ties.

“Spoke to US President-elect Joe Biden on phone to congratulate him. We reiterated our firm commitment to the Indo-US strategic partnership and discussed our shared priorities and concerns — Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region,” Modi said in a tweet.

In another tweet, Modi said he had also spoken to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and congratulated her. “Her success is a matter of great pride and inspiration for members of the vibrant Indian-American community, who are a tremendous source of strength for Indo-US relations,” he said.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday also exuded confidence that bilateral ties will expand further under Biden’s administration, noting he was part of the period when relations underwent a radical transformation.

“As vice president, we dealt with him. I happened to be the ambassador during the last phase of the Obama administration. We’d known him earlier when he was in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the ranking Democratic member and then as the chairman,” Jaishankar said.

“He (Biden) is very much part of this period when Indo-American relations underwent a radical transformation, which I reasonably date back to (Bill) Clinton’s visit,” Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar said Biden is not a stranger” to India or to the relationship between the two countries. “I am very confident that we will pick up where we left off, we have done that over the last four administrations.

“I think that will be the case as well here and I also say that because within the American politics, it’s not just that we deal with the administration of the day, we also tend to deal with the Congress,” Jaishankar said. “American politics by its nature has very strong elements of bipartisanship.”

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