Pool Reports of April 11, 2022

Travel Pool #1 Rolling to DANG

Good morning from Wilmington — Pool van joined the motorcade at 8:55 am.

We are rolling to DANG base.

Travel Pool #2 DANG arrival/wheels up

Motorcade arrived at the tarmac at DANG base at 9:03 am. We saw Biden board for a quick second before being rushed into our osprey. Wheels up momentarily.

Intown Pool Report #1 — Gathering for arrival

Good Morning on this beautiful spring day...

Pool is gathering for POTUS's South Lawn arrival at 9:55am, per overhead annoucement from press office

Intown Pool Report 2 — Arrival/No Questions

Marine One landed at 10:03am

POTUS walked to the Oval Office and entered at 10:06am without taking questions despite reporters calling out to him.

Intown Pool Report 3 — Gathering for Modi meeting

Pool is gathering for pool spray at top of POTUS/Modi virtual meeting.

The press avail will be streamed at whitehouse.gov/live

Intown Pool Report 4 - Negative CoVid test

Pool still holding...

From Press Office:

"Ahead of the President's arrival at the White House, he tested negative for COVID-19."

In-town Pool Report 5

POTUS sat at a round table with Sec Blinken at his right side. Defense Secretary Austin and National Security Adviser Sullivan were also seated at table alongside Indian officials.

In the background there was a sign that read United States|India. The U.S. and Indian flag were also on the stage. (Photo attached)

POTUS told PM Modi he looked forward to "our continued consultation and dialogue"

MODI on killings in Bucha: "We instantly condemn the killings" Said India will send Ukraine medications it has requested.

The event was streamed and available at whitehouse.gov/libe

Pool Report 5a — No questions

I sent previous email too soon...

pool was escorted out at 11:32pm. POTUS did not take any questions that were yelled from reporters.

Pool Report 6 - 2 min warning

2 min warning just issued at 1:09pm

Pool Report 7 — Bilat attendees

Via the press office:

Attendees at the President's virtual bilat this morning with H.E. Narenda Modi, Prime Minister of India:

U.S. Manifest
The President
T.H. Antony Blinken, Secretary of State
T.H. Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense
T.H. Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
T.H. Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, NSC
T.H. Sumona Guha, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South Asia, NSC
Mr. Christopher Commins, Director for India, NSC

India Manifest
H.E. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India (virtual)
H.E. Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defense of India
H.E. Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India
H.E. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Ambassador of India to the United States
Mr. Ajay Kumar, Defense Secretary of India
Ms. Vani Sarraju Rao, Additional Secretary

Reporters are now gathering for POTUS's announcement on ghost guns...

Pool Report 8 - Event Starting

POTUS walked out to the Rose Garden at 2:27pm

Remarks will be livestreamed at whitehouse.gov/live

Domestic Policy Adviser Susan Rice was shaking hands with some of the guests on hand.

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga) and Rep. Adriano

Espaillat (D-NY) were among the lawmakers on hand.

Pool Report 9 - Gun event attendees

Via Press Office:

In attendance for the President's remarks on the Ghost Guns Rules:

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD)
Representative Mike Thompson (CA-5)
Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13)
Representative Lucy McBath (GA-6)
Representative Jamaal Bowman (NY-16)
Advocates
Survivors of gun violence
Families of gun violence victims, including those from Sandy Hook

Run of show:

The Vice President
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco
Mia Tretta
The President
Steve Dettelbach, Nominee for Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

Pool Report 10 — Event ends + Sign spotted

The event wrapped up at 3:05pm.

POTUS shook hands with lawmakers on hand and shook a few more hands of folks in the front.

As Biden shook hands a guest raised a sign. Thanks to USA Today's Rebecca Morin for sharing photo of sign which read:

"US Weapons are most deadly abroad"

Photo Attached:

Pool Report 11 -- Travel/Photo Lid

Lid called at 3:26p.m.

Foreign Pool Report #1

Hi,

I am your foreign pooler for the day for the virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The virtual meeting is being held along with the India US 2+2 ministerial, which is being hosted by Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Their Indian counterparts External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in town over the weekend. Overall, this is the fourth 2+2 ministerial, the first one under the Biden Administration. The first three were during the Trump Admin. The last one was held in New Delhi on October 27, 2020.

For your convenience, below is some background information on India US relationship under the Biden Administration. Courtesy Indian Embassy here.

Intensive Interactions

• Even though COVID-19 pandemic curtailed in-person engagements, interactions at all levels, including at the Leaders' level, continued on virtual platforms.

• The Prime Minister participated in the Quad Leaders' Virtual Summit hosted by President Biden on 12 March 2021. He participated in several other virtual Summit meetings hosted by President Biden - Leaders' Summit on Climate (22-23 April 2021); Global COVID-19 Summit (22 September 2021); Summit of Democracy (9-10 December 2021).

• Prime Minister visited the U.S. from 22-25 September 2021 to participate in the first QUAD in-person Summit and for the first in-person bilateral meeting with President Biden.\

• The Ministerial and official level engagements (virtual and in-person) saw an uptick as well in the last one year. Dialogue mechanisms in the areas of defense, security, trade, economic, S&T, health and space have been meeting regularly.

• US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin visited India in March 2021 - his first visit abroad after taking over as Secretary of Defense. EAM undertook a bilateral visit to the U.S. in May 2021.

• India's Finance Minister visited the US in October 2021 for the Economic and Financial Partnership Dialogue and annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to New Delhi in July 2021.

• USTR Katherine Tai visited India in November 2021 for the India-US Trade Policy Forum, which met after a gap of four years. US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate John Kerry visited India several times in 2021.

• External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar participated in the meeting of Foreign Ministers of India, Israel, UAE, and USA in October 2021.

• At the senior official level, India's Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla visited the US from 1-3 September 2021. In October 2021, Defense Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar visited Washington D.C. for the Defense Policy Group meeting. Secretary (Defense Production) Raj Kumar virtually co-chaired the 11th Defense Trade and Technology Initiative in November 2021.

• From the US side, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger (September 2021), U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman (October 2021), Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West (November 2021), US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland (March 2022 for FOC), Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Daleep Singh (March 2022) visited India. There were a series of visits on the defense side as well.

Expansion of Bilateral Partnership

• In the last one year of the Biden Administration, India-US partnership has seen an upward trajectory across diverse sectors.

• U.S.-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 Partnership was launched during the Leaders Climate Summit in April 2021. In November 2021, the US joined the International Solar Alliance.

• On the trade front, India-US goods trade reached a historic high of US$ 113 billion in calendar year 2021, with a jump of 45% from 2020.

• decades old market access issues with the US resolved. From this year, Indian mangoes and pomegranates will be available in the US while pork, alfalfa hay & cherries from the US will be exported to India.

• FDI from the US into India jumped from US$ 4 billion in 2019-2020 to US$ 14 billion in 2020-21. Much of this investment went into the tech sector.

• India-US cooperation further strengthened in critical and emerging technologies (semiconductors, AI, 5G, ORAN) both bilaterally and under the Quad framework.

• During the second wave of the pandemic in India, the US rushed critical supplies, including oxygen and Remdesivir, worth US$ 500 million to India.

• Three US vaccines are currently being manufactured in India: Janssen by Biological-E (J&J), Corbevax by Biological-E (Baylor College of Medicine, Texas) and Covovax by Serum Institute (Novovax).

• US companies have been critical in supplying material/adjutant for vaccines. The Biden Administration announced its support for negotiating the TRIPS waiver at the WTO.

• On the defense side, the relationship has further strengthened. The focus has been on the implementation of the four foundational agreements (LEMOA, COMCASA, BECA, and ISA).

• Both sides have deepened military to military cooperation and have participated in a number of bilateral and multilateral military exercises on land, air, sea, signifying the broad and multi-domain cooperation.

• The two forces have exercised together in cold-weather (Yudh Abhayas), for special ops (Tarkash), in the Indian Ocean Region (Passex, Malabar Milan), and off-coast of Africa (Ex-Cutlass).

• Both sides have also deepened mil-mil coop through placement of liaison officers

Foreign Pool Report # 2

Hi,

The virtual meeting between Pres Biden and Indian PM Narendra Modi started with POTUS welcoming PM Modi.

POTUS was seated at the head of the round table with Indian Defense Minister, Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on his left and Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on his right.

India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan were also seated in the room.

(As usual please check against official transcripts)

Describing India and the US as two "vibrant democracies", POTUS said: "We take the same concerns about the global challenges we face with COVID-19, advancing health security and tracking the climate crisis. And we share a strong and growing major defence partnership.

"At the root of our partnership is a deep connection between our people, ties of family, friendship and of shared value.

On that note, I want to welcome India's humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine who are suffering a horrific assault, including a tragic shelling and a train station last week that killed dozens of innocent children and women and civilians attempting to flee the violence.

The United States and India are going to continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilising effects of this Russian war.

Our continued consultation and dialogue are key to ensuring the US India relationship continues to grow deeper and stronger delivering our people and our global good that we all are seeking to manage particularly in your part of the world, POTUS said.

In his remarks, PM Modi said the virtual meeting between the two leaders is very important as it will provide direction for the 2+2 ministerial later in the day. He also appreciated POTUS's initiative to organize today's virtual meeting, PM Modi was speaking in Hindi and it was being simultaneously transcribed in English.

Recollecting his visit to Washington DC last September, PM Modi said: "You had said at the time that the India America partnership can contribute to solving a lot of global problems. I totally agree with you."

"As to democracies that are the world's largest and oldest, we are natural partners. And the progress that has taken place in our relations in the last few years, the new momentum that has been created would have been hard to even imagine a few decades ago," he said.

Describing the situation in Ukraine as "very worrying" PM Modi said a few weeks ago, over 20,000 Indians were stuck in Ukraine and most of them were young students. After a lot of hard work, India was successful in getting them all out safely. One student, however, lost his life during this entire process, he said.

"I spoke several times on the phone to the presidents of both Ukraine and Russia. I have not only appealed for peace, but also suggested that there be direct talks between President Putin and the President of Ukraine. We had extensive discussions on Ukraine in our parliament as well," he said.

PM Modi said recently, the news about the killings of innocent civilians in the butcher city was very worrying. "We instantly condemned the killings and have called for an independent inquiry. We hope that the ongoing discussions between Russia and Ukraine will lead to peace," he said.

PM Modi said India has also emphasized the importance of the security of civilians in Ukraine and the unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance to them.

India has sent medicines and other relief materials to Ukraine and to its neighbouring countries. "On Ukraine's request, we will be sending them another consignment of medicines very soon," he said.

PM Modi said: "At the beginning of your term in office, you used a very important slogan, democracies can deliver. The success of the India America Partnership is the best means to make this slogan meaningful."

PM Modi said this year India is celebrating 75 years of its independence.

"And we are also celebrating the 75th anniversary of our diplomatic relations as well. I am confident that our friendship with America will be an integral part of India's development journey over the next 25 years," PM Modi said.

Pool was escorted out of the South Court Auditorium soon thereafter.

Foreign Pool Report # 3

from WH

Attendees at the President's virtual bilat this morning with H.E. Narenda Modi, Prime Minister of India:

U.S. Manifest
The President
T.H. Antony Blinken, Secretary of State
T.H. Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense
T.H. Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
T.H. Kurt Campbell, Deputy Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, NSC
T.H. Sumona Guha, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for South Asia, NSC
Mr. Christopher Commins, Director for India, NSC

India Manifest
H.E. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India (virtual)
H.E. Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defense of India
H.E. Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India
H.E. Taranjit Singh Sandhu, Ambassador of India to the United States
Mr. Ajay Kumar, Defense Secretary of India
Ms. Vani Sarraju Rao, Additional Secretary