H-1B visas not on agenda, says US
MODITRUMP MEET Indian PM will be the first foreign dignitary invited to dinner after Trump became President
The White House is rolling out the “red carpet” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his first meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday.
The two leaders will discuss deepening of defence and security ties, launch new initiatives on counter-terrorism and thrash out trade issues.
They are also expected to discuss climate change, an uncomfortable issue after Trump took an ill-informed shot at India (and China) in remarks announcing US exit from the Paris Accord, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region, in other words China, in the context of the South China Sea dispute.
There were no plans for discussing the issue of H-1B visas, a senior White House official previewing the visit for reporters said, adding “if it’s raised”, the US will note that while Trump has ordered a review, “there have been no immediate changes in visa applications and issuance procedures”.
Modi will be the first foreign dignitary invited to dinner at the Trump White House. “The White House is very interested in making this a special visit,” the official said, adding: “We are really seeking to roll out the carpet.”
Expect a “concrete expression” of US designating India a major defence partner — by the Barack Obama administration in 2016, the official said, refusing to confirm or deny reports the US had cleared the sale of 22 hightech unarmed drones to India.
Also high on the agenda for the two leaders would be counter-terrorism. Apart from the usual discussions about terrorist screening, information sharing, terrorists’ use of the internet and terrorist designation, the official said, “we can expect to see some new initiatives”.
Modi and Trump will also discuss trade and investment, areas of mutual interest to both leaders and disagreement. “Both sides are looking to increase market access,” the official said, adding, the US expects “stronger Intellectual Property Rights” and tariff reduction.
Also on the agenda will be China. Though the official did name it, the reference could not have been clearer in the assertion that the two sides will “re-state their commitment to common principles in a strategically vital and important region, the IndoPacific, and this includes the freedom of navigation and overflight”, an unmistakable nod to China’s increasing aggression in the disputed South China Sea.
Though it wasn’t clear if Pakistan will figure in the talks, the official said the US views its relations with India and Pakistan mutually exclusive of each other.
The US is yet to decide on the future of the office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan following the departure of its top official, creating confusion about its diplomacy in the region at a time when Washington is conducting a key review of the Afghan war.
Laurel Miller, an analyst from Rand Corporation who was the acting special representative, left the office on Friday along with her deputy.
This was followed by a string of reports that the post would be scrapped and the office merged with the state department’s South and Central Asian affairs bureau.
“The secretary (of state Rex Tillerson) has not made a decision about the future of the office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.
Nauert said the state department will maintain the Afghanistan and Pakistan affairs offices, which currently report to the special representative, to “address policy concerns and our bilateral relationship with these two key countries”.
He noted that Tillerson had expressed skepticism about the role of special representatives during recent testimony to the house appropriations committee on foreign operations.
Tillerson had said there were more than 70 special envoys and representatives whose work may have actually weakened attention to the issues they were meant to address. He also said these offices stripped expertise from regional bureaus of the state department.
The office of the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan was created in January 2009 by former president Barack Obama, who named late diplomat Richard Holbrooke to hold the post.
Holbrooke had then upset the Indian government by seeking to include the Kashmir issue in the office’s mandate.
The move was rolled back after a strong protest from New Delhi. Holkbrooke’s efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks also did not go down well in New Delhi.
US diplomats believed the office of the special representative was being shuttered with Miller’s departure.