India hoping presidential election will not affect partnership with US

With the US poised to elect its 47th president in 10 days, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in New York on Monday, making her the fifth senior official from New Delhi to visit the US in just over two months.

Sitharaman, touring in the US through Saturday to promote investments in India, also travelled to Washington to engage with heads of financial institutions and policymakers.

She followed Indian Industry and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who met US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Trade Representative Katherine Tai this month to discuss countering Beijing’s influence as a global manufacturing hub as well as a potential bilateral free trade agreement on critical minerals.

Goyal also noted the frequency of Indian officials’ trips to the US to engage with their counterparts ahead of the election, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Goyal added that he was “very confident” the relationship between the “two democracies of significance” would deepen, since it had already “stood the test of time” under the US presidencies of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Once a hesitant global player, New Delhi has in recent years stepped onto the world stage as a burgeoning economic power, bolstering its partnership with Washington and its allies to counter Beijing’s influence. India’s economy is expected to rise from fifth-largest internationally to third by 2030. The country also boasts a big diaspora in the US, with Indians the largest group of Asian-American voters, at over two million.