Biden renews effort to woo India’s Modi in talks before G20 summit

Meeting in Delhi overshadowed by press freedom questions as US journalists kept away

Joe Biden took fresh steps on Friday to lure India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, into an alliance designed to contain China, at a bilateral meeting in Delhi where the pair struck a series of commercial and defence deals covering remote-controlled aircraft, semiconductors and quantum computing.

However, the question of press freedom also dominated the agenda on the eve of the full G20 summit as journalists were blocked from covering the event. Before the bilateral at the prime minister's residence, the US press corps, used to being given privileged access to the president, were told to remain outside in a van, out of eyesight of the two leaders.