Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters as he arrives on the Lotte New York Palace lodge in New York City, June 20, 2023.
Mike Segar | Reuters
As China’s economic system falters, high U.S. company executives are making it a precedence to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi throughout his state go to to the White House, together with Thursday’s dinner.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam shall be among the many a number of U.S. CEOs attending the White House state dinner Thursday, in keeping with sources aware of the state of affairs.
The state dinner is a primary for India and is considered by New Delhi as a coup.
“The opportunity is huge. The administration is going all out to give the prime minister a close-to-royal welcome,” Frank Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to India, instructed CNBC.
Other firms with an enormous footprint in India may also ship their CEOs, together with Marriott‘s Tony Capuano and Cummins‘ Jennifer Rumsey, in keeping with a number of sources.
The largest deal to be introduced shall be General Electric co-producing navy jet engines in India alongside Hindustan Aeronautics.
“Strengthening of US-India defense and security ties will likely be a major outcome for the trip, especially around issues of critical technology sharing and defense equipment IP,” mentioned Safiya Ghori-Ahmad of the Atlantic Council who beforehand labored on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to CNBC.
Separately, CNBC has discovered General Atomics is nearing a deal to promote new drones to New Delhi at a time when the nation is attempting to beef up its safety.
Modi’s arrival to the U.S. follows a high-profile assembly in China between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday in a bid to ease tensions between the 2 largest economies on this planet. China is likely one of the agenda objects when Modi meets with Biden and U.S. executives Thursday and Friday.
“Both the U.S. and India share a common interest in managing the rise of Chinese power,” mentioned Wisner.
A separate Modi assembly with tech leaders can be within the works for Friday, the place expertise switch and discovering methods to diversify away from China shall be mentioned, per a number of sources.
With China’s economic system decelerating and political tensions excessive, company America has taken steps to diversify away from the nation. Apple opened two retail shops in India earlier this yr after transferring some iPhone manufacturing to the nation. CNBC beforehand reported Apple can be trying to transfer a few of its iPad manufacturing from China to India, though unskilled labor and weak infrastructure current challenges for U.S. companies wishing to develop companies there.
Sources near Modi say the Indian chief is hoping to ease these issues and see extra U.S. firms decide to manufacturing there as effectively. Modi is claimed to have met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday to debate opening a manufacturing unit within the nation as effectively, sources beforehand instructed CNBC.
Source: www.cnbc.com