United States Vice President Joe Biden is preparing for a four-day visit to India that starts Monday.
The focus of the trip is to push India to do more to increase trade with the US and protect intellectual property, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters:
US business groups this year have escalated their complaints about India's trade practices, complaining its policies discriminate against American firms or undermine US intellectual property rights, especially for pharmaceuticals.
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"We still have a lot of work to do on a wide range of issues, including the civil nuclear cooperation, a bilateral investment treaty, policies protecting innovation," Biden said in a speech earlier this week previewing the trip.
Biden’s first stop will be New Delhi, where he’ll visit the site where Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, the Wall Street Journal reported. In New Delhi, he’s expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, the president of India’s ruling-Congress party, and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, along with India’s vice president and the leader of the opposition in the lower house of parliament.
Biden will then visit Mumbai, where he’ll speak about the US-India partnership at the Bombay Stock Exchange and discuss women’s empowerment at the Indian Institute of Technology.
Biden’s wife, Jill, will accompany him and is scheduled to deliver speeches at several schools.
Biden has said trade between the US and India could increase five times to $500 billion a year if barriers were lowered.
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