Biden, Modi to deepen US-India ties despite differences over human rights

US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are expected to deepen defence and technology cooperation between their countries during Modi's official visit to the White House, despite lingering concerns about human rights in India.

Two days of carefully orchestrated official events had a rocky start on Wednesday afternoon, however, when Modi was so late to a planned tour of the National Science Foundation that the president's wife Jill Biden, a teacher, started without him.

Modi arrived about 30 minutes after the scheduled start of the tour and apologised to her.

Later on Wednesday, Modi is scheduled to have a private dinner with the Bidens at the White House. Modi will attend a state dinner on Thursday night.

Washington wants India to be a strategic counterweight to China and sees India as a critical partnership.

Modi is seeking to raise the influence that India, the world's most populous country at 1.4 billion, has on the world stage.

When the US sees challenges to press, religious or other freedoms, "we make our views known," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.

"We do so in a way where we don't seek to lecture or assert that we don't have challenges ourselves," he said.

While Biden is expected to raise US concerns about democratic backsliding in India under Modi's Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP], the issues will be decided by Indians themselves and not the United States, Sullivan said.

Among the expected business agreements were those in artificial intelligence [AI], quantum computing and investments in India by Micron Technology and other US companies.

At his event with Jill Biden, Modi invited American students to come to India and said he was happy to meet "young and creative minds" as soon as he arrived in Washington.

Modi said India was training students in AI and had started labs across the country. More than 200,000 Indian students were studying in the United States as of last year, according to the White House.

Tlaib, Omar to boycott Modi's Congress address

Human rights advocates want Biden to press Modi on human rights issues, both international and within India.

Modi has faced criticism over legislation that fast-tracks citizenship for some refugees but excludes Muslims; a rise in violence against Muslims and other religious minorities by Hindu far-right groups; and the recent conviction of India's top opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, for mocking Modi's surname.

Gandhi recently visited the US himself, speaking to journalists, university students and an Indian diaspora group.

A bipartisan group of more than 70 lawmakers wrote Biden this week, calling on him to raise concerns about the erosion of religious, press and political freedoms when he meets with Modi.

Democratic Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota have said they will boycott Modi's address to Congress.

"Prime Minister Modi's government has cracked down on the press and civil society, jailed political opponents, and pushed an aggressive Hindu nationalism that leaves little space for India's religious minorities," US Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted on Wednesday. "President Biden should raise these facts in his meeting with Modi."

Modi's government defends its record and insists that the nation's democratic principles remain rock-solid.

'Subtle shift' on Russia ties

Both Biden and Modi are grappling with Beijing's flexing its muscle in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

"This visit is not about China. But the question of China’s role in the military domain, the technology domain, the economic domain will be on the agenda," Sullivan said.

New Delhi, which often prizes its non-alignment in conflicts between great powers abroad, has frustrated Washington by maintaining some defence and economic ties with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

Biden will bring up Russia and Ukraine ahead of the G20 summit later this year that will be held in India, Sullivan said.

A senior State Department official said there had been a "subtle shift" in India's approach to Russia since Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin in September that "today's era is not an era of war."

On Thursday, Biden and Modi will make announcements on the "co-development and co-production of military systems, including some very advanced systems," said the official, describing this as part of a broader move by India to buy weapons from other sources than traditional supplier Moscow.

Washington accepts that India will continue buying Russian oil, as long as it does so "at rock bottom prices" below a price cap agreed by developed nations, the official added.