One meeting, two retellings: India and US viewed the Modi-Biden interaction at G20 very differently

It was one interaction during the G20 summit in Bali last week, but it spawned two very different recollections of what happened.

During the summit, many of the world leaders in attendance had meet-and-greets with each other. This included Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and US president Joe Biden. 

India’s ministry of external affairs issued a press release on November 15 on the Biden-Modi interaction. It said Modi and Biden “reviewed the continued deepening of the India-US strategic partnership” in sectors like “critical and emerging technologies, advanced computing, artificial intelligence”.

The two leaders then “expressed satisfaction about the close cooperation between India and US”, they “discussed topical global and regional developments”. 

Modi finally “thanked” Biden for his “constant support” and “expressed confidence” that India and the US would “continue to maintain close coordination”.

The US’s version was much, much shorter. It didn’t issue a press release but the interaction found brief mention in a transcript on November 21, after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre chatted with journalists on Air Force One.

Jean-Pierre was asked about Eric Garcetti potentially being confirmed as the US envoy to India, and India being an “important enough relationship” to have an ambassador in place.

She replied, “Absolutely. India is a very important relationship that we have. You – you saw the president greet and meet very briefly with prime minister Modi just last week when he was in – in Bali. So clearly, it’s an important relationship that – that we truly respect.”

And that was it.

Unsurprisingly, social media was quite perplexed.

On a more serious note, India will now take over G20’s presidency from December 1. India will need diplomatic clarity while also steering clear of a mediatory trap. Read Anand Vardhan’s piece in Newslaundry on how things might play out.