Biden, the first US Vice President to visit India in three decades, welcomed relaxation of foreign direct investment norms in certain sectors but said a lot more needed to be done to remove trade barriers.
His Germany visit, which he described as a "new chapter" in bilateral relations, will begin with a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel at her country retreat of Schloss Meseberg.
Johnson's first visit to India as United Kingdom prime minister will begin on April 21 with a trip to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Modi's home state.
'In light of the events in Israel, Foreign Minister Cohen decided to cut short his diplomatic visit to India and return to Israel after the meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that will take place today'
India and the US on Monday committed to further improving bilateral ties, exploring alternate mechanisms for funding renewable energy and actively pursuing the G20 agenda which includes strengthening MDBs and taking coordinated action to deal with climate change. Several issues, including climate action, rising indebtedness in low and middle income countries and digital public infrastructure, figured during a bilateral meeting between Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. India, Sitharaman said, will "look forward to furthering ... bilateral interests through development cooperation and new investment opportunities through Alternate Investment platforms for renewable energy."
India believes no country would emerge victorious in the Russia-Ukraine war as all will suffer losses and there will be a "more serious" impact on developing and poor countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday after holding talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as both leaders reiterated the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
Both the countries discussed issues of mutual interest like comprehensive economic partnership, high level structured energy dialogue, cooperation in mining and earth sciences, social security agreement, civilian nuclear cooperation at the 6th round of Annual Bilateral Trade Policy Consultations that concluded in Ottawa on Thursday.
India has demanded resumption of export benefits to certain domestic products under GSP, and greater market access for its products from sectors like agriculture, automobile, auto components and engineering. On the other hand, the US wants greater market access for its farm and manufacturing products, dairy items and medical devices, data localisation, and import duties cut on some ICT products.
An ambitious long-term vision to ensure economic connectivity between India and the rest of Southern Asia is critical to India's trade policy objectives.
If it continues to do well economically, develops a large manufacturing sector, gains in technological heft, builds a more capable defence industry, improves its human development indicators, becomes more of a trading nation, and has greater internal cohesion. In short, it is a work in progress, suggests T N Ninan.
Official talks were held between Modi and Seikh Tamim for multi-sectoral partnership and strengthening of Indo-Qatar ties following which the agreements and Memorandums of Understanding were signed on the second day of the Prime Minister's visit.
India will sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with Japan on Wednesday, setting the stage for free bilateral trade of goods and services.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday to give Indian companies and products - especially including those made by the pharmaceutical, farming and fuel industries - greater access to Chinese markets.
Seasoned American diplomat Nancy Powell, who was sworn in as United States ambassador to India, has identified five priority areas to take the relationship between the two countries to a new level. "Our look forward will encompass: Bolstering trade and investment to reduce barriers, including through negotiation of a bilateral investment treaty, and expansion of the areas where we can do business, including full implementation of the Civil-Nuclear Agreement," Powell said.
The two sides are engaged in negotiations to expand the ambit of FTA in goods to include trade in services and investments.
India Inc had cheered Donald Trump's decision to scrap TPP, but now there is a growing sense that it won't really lead to positive growth in trade with the US. Subhayan Chakraborty reports.
The visit of Modi to the United States represents an important opportunity to rejuvenate bilateral ties after a period of malaise and inattention.
"We are very keen that before the year is out we should have an agreement on a comprehensive economic partnership," Dr Manmohan Singh said in an interview to a Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun. The two countries had earlier failed to finalise a trade deal by mid-2008 or to achieve visible progress in time to sign it during a three-day visit by Singh to Japan which started on Tuesday, the paper said.
India's first-ever Olympic medallist in women's boxing Mary Kom has been honoured with the Global Indian Icon of the Year award at the annual UK-India Awards in Windsor.
With Beijing remaining intransigent on the withdrawal of additional troops deployed by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) since the deadly border clash in 2020 in eastern Ladakh, India's bilateral ties with China remained frozen in 2023 with no forward movement on the horizon despite several rounds of diplomatic and military talks.
India needs a National Trade Policy Council, chaired by a minister who reports directly to the PM, says Jayanta Roy, former economic advisor to the Union commerce ministry.
In an article published in the Sunday Telegraph as she left for India for her first bilateral visit outside the UK, she said plans to promote the best of Britain during her three-day trade mission to New Delhi and Bengaluru.
Winding up his visit to Canada, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was a historic trip that will herald a new era of cooperation between the two countries.
The agreement provides for extensive cooperation in the civil nuclear energy sector including in research and development for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, they said.
In the UK, he will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
In a bid to further boost the growing bilateral trade, Sri Lanka is seeking to upgrade its free trade agreement with India to include services and investments, officials said in Colombo.
Despite the "shocks and jolts" in the past, Australia and India are in a better position to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA) that would further expand bilateral relations, according to a Melbourne-based think tank.
The investment chapter of the India-Korea agreement provides equal treatment to investors in the domestic market as also South Korean investors.
The French president said that peace should be maintained in the region and peoples' rights should be protected.
The minister said Australia would benefit greatly from this pact.
His visit to India followed a few cancelled plans since he took office in July 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic crisis, with the two leaders holding several virtual talks and eventually meeting in person on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last November.
Biden, who during his visit to India in 2013 had set the target of increasing the bilateral trade to $500 billion.
The two leaders discussed the Ukraine crisis and several regional and global issues including increasing trade relations and cooperation in the field of mitigating the impact of climate change during their bilateral talks at the Danish Prime Minister's official residence in Mareinborg near Copenhagen.
'We have to keep a watch because India-Sri Lanka has a history that whenever there has been a change in government, either the connectivity projects have been questioned or cancelled or revived.'
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who landed in Ahmedabad on Thursday morning on a two-day India visit, was accorded a grand welcome at the airport in Ahmedabad. Soon after, he visited Sabarmati Ashram in the company of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupesh Patel.
Global confidence in India has been restored, says Modi.
China had been trying hard to enter the Indian market, without opening its own to Indian products. There is an economic crisis in India-China relations that the Chennai Connect barely scratched the surface, points out Srikanth Kondapalli.
Indian firms feared they would lose business if US ratified the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with 11 other countries.
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