PM Modi arrives in New York

The India-U.S. Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (S&CD) that concluded on Tuesday with a strong note of support for a raft of bilateral initiatives has “set the stage” for the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this country, officials here said, with all eyes now on his interactions with the diaspora community and tech companies in Silicon Valley and then a much-anticipated meeting with President Barack Obama on September 28.

Placing the achievements of the S&CD within the broader strategic context Vinay Kwatra, Joint Secretary (Americas), Ministry of External Affairs, said, “The entire idea has been to see economic issues from a strategic perspective. Transactional issues are short-term and change too often. But strategic considerations are long-term.”

Two key strategic-economic announcements emerging from the S&CD, Indian officials noted, are the trilateral ministerial meeting with Japan later this month and India’s announcement on Tuesday of a $3 billion defence order to Boeing for Apache attack helicopters.

Indeed, while the S&CD and related meetings here witnessed a sharp but candid exchange of criticisms between Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, strategic consensus was writ large in the policy outcome of the dialogue, with both sides agreed on a far-reaching statement on joint counterterrorism cooperation and the U.S. supporting India’s membership of the UN Security Council, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organisation, and various nuclear “clubs.”

On Wednesday Mr. Modi arrived in New York City to attend the U.N General Assembly and a series of bilateral engagements on its margins, and his five-day visit will also see him engage with major investment bankers and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in New York, and with Google, Facebook and Tesla in Silicon Valley on September 26 and 27.

The Indian-American community of the West Coast, whose members count among the senior management of many top tech firms in the area, will host a reception for Mr. Modi on Sept. 27 at the SAP Center arena in San Jose. It will include a performance by Kailash Kher, the Indian pop-rock singer whom Mr. Modi nominated as a brand ambassador for his Swachh Bharat campaign.

Officials noted that the Prime Minister’s trip to the West Coast would also seek promote trade with and investment to India through the Digital India and Smart Cities initiatives and a focus on entrepreneurship, which would likely have strong echoes in the technology and venture capital hub of the U.S.