Washington [US], September 22 (ANI): The bilateral meeting between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a chance to discuss a variety of issues in-person including Afghanistan and how to deal with Taliban, senior fellow in the foreign policy programme at Brookings Institution Tanvi Madan said on Tuesday.

"Bilateral meeting between US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a chance to discuss a variety of issues in person. Meeting's agenda will be varied, including issues of Afghanistan and developments there, how to deal or not deal with the Taliban controlled regime, Indo-Pacific and climate change," she said in an interview with ANI ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day visit to the United States.

Madan further added that the range of issues will also include discussions on tackling the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Other issues, which will be discussed in the Quad but also have bilateral dimensions including tackling consequences of COVID on health, economy and travelling, will also be discussed," Expert said.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit the United States to attend the first-ever in-person Quad Leaders Summit to be hosted by Biden on September 24. He will address the annual high-level UN General Assembly session in New York on September 25.

This will be the first time PM Modi will be visiting the US after President Joe Biden assumed office.

The senior fellow from the institutions further noted that India has a number of partnerships with foreign countries.

"India has interest in continued collaboration of the US and France on bilateral as well as multilateral fronts. It gives India some leverage, whether to negotiate better prices for next defence deals or to ask France for advanced defence technology," said Madan.

The meeting comes amid the launch of a trilateral security partnership focussing AUKUS, which is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. AUKUS was announced on September 15, 2021.

Over the impact of AUKUS on the upcoming Quad meeting, Madan said, "We need to wait and see how AUKUS develops. At first glance, it looks supplementary to the efforts of the Quad."She further outlined that all coalitions of India with other countries are important and would be beneficial. (ANI)