After Prince William and his baby boy, it is US Vice-President Joe Biden’s turn to flaunt an Indian connection. If William’s Indian roots were revealed in June and an Indian-born neo-natologist was part of the medical team that delivered his baby boy this week, Biden on Wednesday claimed he might have relatives in India. Addressing the Bombay Stock Exchange in the afternoon, he said: “I was elected to the US senate when I was a 29-year-old kid back in 1972, and one of the first letters I received... and I regret I never followed up on it. Maybe some genealogist in the audience can follow up for me, but I received a letter from a gentleman named Biden — Biden, my name — from Mumbai, asserting that we were related. Seriously. Suggesting that our mutual, great, great, great, something or other worked for the East India Trading Company back in the 1700s and came to Mumbai. “And so I was thinking about it, if that’s true, I might run here in India for office. I might be qualified. But I’ve never followed up on it. But… I’m going to follow up to find out whether there is a Biden and whether we’re related. I hope he’s in good standing if we are.” AFP picture shows Biden with Ratan Tata in Mumbai on Wednesday.

New Delhi. July 24: Differing priorities in Indian and American strategic expectations from their relationship marked key talks on Tuesday between US Vice-President Joseph Biden and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders that were meant to highlight their proximity.

In meetings with Singh and Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Biden repeatedly brought up America’s desire for closer cooperation with India in its “rebalance” towards the Asia-Pacific region that has China worried. But both Singh and Ansari reminded Biden that India’s single biggest strategic worry in the neighbourhood involves the future of Afghanistan and the US moderated talks with the Taliban.

“Both countries want a stable Afghanistan and a peaceful Asia-Pacific region, and want to work together on both,” a senior official aware of the talks said yesterday. “The difference lies in what the two countries see as the priority in their strategic relationship, and that’s what came out today.”

Biden, the first US Vice-President to visit India since George Bush Sr. in 1984, arrived on Monday and flew to Mumbai at 9pm last night, after a banquet hosted by his counterpart Ansari.

Biden also met President Pranab Mukherjee and leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj.

In Mumbai, he is scheduled to address business leaders at the Bombay Stock Exchange and to deliver a speech on women’s empowerment at IIT Bombay.

India and the US have showcased Biden’s visit, just a month after secretary of state John Kerry’s three-day trip to India, as indicative of the growing strategic relationship between nations that American President Barack Obama has called “natural partners”.

But yesterday, differing bilateral trade-related perceptions and strategic priorities, and a persistent struggle to find a meeting ground on nuclear cooperation simmered below the personal charm that Biden is a natural at.

The typically outspoken Biden started the dialogue with the reticent Singh, when the two met at the Prime Minister’s residence at 4 pm, introducing his delegation and dominating the conversation.

But the Prime Minister, in his usual quiet but assertive style, transmitted India’s positions on each topic that Biden raised before pointing out Delhi’s set of concerns.

Biden articulated concerns in American industry over India’s patent regime, while Singh countered with India’s worries over a proposed US immigration law that it believes unfairly targets its companies.

The two discussed possible ways out of a logjam preventing the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited and American nuclear manufacturer Westinghouse from signing a commercial agreement on setting up a plant in Gujarat. Westinghouse finds India’s nuclear liability law too rigid but New Delhi isn’t ready to budge.

But from a strategic perspective, it is the difference in priorities from the bilateral relationship that stood out even as the nations continue to share core values and geopolitical principles, officials said.

“As vibrant democracies we cherish, as you do, the right to disagree without losing sight of our endeavour for common good,” Ansari said, addressing Biden at the banquet on Tuesday evening.

A former diplomat, the Indian Vice President raised concerns about the future of Afghanistan after the scheduled withdrawal of Nato forces from that country by end 2014.

“Threats to peace, many in India’s immediate region, are the greatest impediments to progress,” Ansari said at the banquet. “They emanate from terrorism, extremism, intolerance, injustice and misuse of the benefits of science and technology.”

Ansari’s reference may have been to India’s western neighbourhood. But after Mumbai, Biden will be moving eastwards, to Singapore, where too he is expected to speak about the American tilt towards the Asia-Pacific region.