US President-elect Joe Biden spoke about “strengthening democracy at home and abroad” on Tuesday during his first conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the US presidential polls were called in his favour a week and a half ago.
The telephone conversation took place late on Tuesday night. It was Modi who first announced that the conversation had taken place by posting two tweets close to midnight.
Neither these two tweets nor the official readout issued by the Indian external affairs ministry mentioned Biden talking about working with Modi towards “strengthening dem-ocracy at home and abroad”. The words were included in the readout from the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition.
The only mention of democracy in the ministry’s statement was a reference to the Prime Minister describing Biden’s election as “a testament to the strength and resilience of democratic traditions in the United States”.
Sources said not too much should be made of the slight difference in the two readouts since statements by different capitals about the same conversation are seldom identical.
They also underlined that the Indian readout spoke of shared values, one of which is democracy.
“The leaders agreed to work closely to further advance the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, built on shared values and common interests,” the external affairs ministry had said.
“The leaders also discussed their priorities, including containing the Covid-19 pandemic, promoting access to affordable vaccines, tackling climate change, and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.”
US President-elect Joe Biden File picture
The readout put out by the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition said: “The President-elect noted that he looks forward to working closely with the Prime Minister on shared global challenges, including containing Covid-19 and defending against future health crises, tackling the threat of climate change, launching the global economic recovery, strengthening democracy at home and abroad, and maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.”
The Biden administration is widely expected to be more vocal than the Trump White House on issues relating to democracy and liberalism.
During his campaign, Biden had called for restoration of the rights of the people of Kashmir and expressed his disappointment with the Citizenship Amendment Act, terming these measures “inconsistent with the country’s long tradition of secularism and with sustaining a multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy”.
The Biden-Modi conversation was part of a series of congratulatory calls that the President-elect took part in over the past week. On Tuesday, Biden spoke to five leaders including Modi, the others being the President of Chile, the President and Prime Minister of Israel, and the President of South Africa.
By Tuesday evening, Biden had spoken to 14 world leaders, beginning with neighbour Canada and longstanding US allies in Europe and Asia.
