President Pranab Mukherjee shakes hands with US Vice President Joe Biden in New Delhi yesterday.

AFP/New Delhi

US Vice President Joe Biden held talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday as he sought to calm fears over the exit of US troops from Afghanistan and capitalise on growing investment opportunities.

Biden also met President Pranab Mukherjee and a top opposition party figure, Sushma Swaraj, and was the guest of honour at a dinner hosted by his counterpart Hamid Ansari in the capital.

Biden, the most senior US official to visit India since President Barack Obama in 2010, discussed with Singh the security situation in Afghanistan during a 75-minute meeting, according to the Press Trust of India(PTI)news agency.

The US vice president has said the world’s two largest democracies share common goals on a range of regional security issues. But there is widespread unease among Indian leaders over what will happen in Afghanistan once US combat troops have left in 2014, with many fearing that Pakistan has most to gain from the withdrawal.

During talks, the pair confirmed that Singh will meet Obama during a six-day visit to Washington from September 20, PTI quoted sources as saying.

They also discussed implementation of a landmark civil nuclear deal and ways to build up two-way commerce, the sources said.

Boosting bilateral trade is expected to form the cornerstone of a keynote speech Biden is scheduled to make in Mumbai today.

India has spent more than $2bn of aid in Afghanistan since the Taliban, who were strong allies of Pakistan, were toppled in a 2001 US-led invasion. Even though plans for talks between the US and the Taliban collapsed last month, the possible return to power of the militia alarms many in India.

Writing in The Times of India yesterday, Washington-based commentator Seema Sirohi reflected a widespread feeling in New Delhi that the departure of US troops would be a major boost for Pakistan.

“Biden, as one of the original proponents of the pullback of US troops from Afghanistan, is well positioned to explain why the Americans have handed the keys to Kabul to Pakistani generals,” she wrote. “Americans may close their eyes to the reality but it is impossible for India to do so. Biden should understand that.”

In an interview ahead of his arrival, Biden said the Taliban had a part to play in the political process as long as they renounced violence. “Our goal is for Afghans to be talking to Afghans about how they can move forward, end the violence and start rebuilding their country,” he told The Times of India.

“We have been clear that if the Taliban are to have any role in Afghanistan’s political future, they will need to break ties with Al Qaeda, stop supporting violence and accept the Afghan constitution as part of the outcomes of any negotiated peace settlement.”

Indian and US officials have pointed to Biden’s visit as a chance to heat up the investment climate and raise the level of bilateral trade, which is on course to reach around $100bn a year. But in a sign of the frustration among American investors over the obstacles they face in doing business in India, a Washington-based lobby wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to address what it called “India’s unfair trade and intellectual property practices”.

Biden “has a unique opportunity to show the administration’s commitment to protecting US innovative and creative sectors by raising this important issue during his high-level meetings in India”, Mark Elliot, a co-chair of the Alliance for Fair Trade with India, wrote in the letter.

The issue of intellectual property has been a major bone of contention in trade ties for years, with the American pharmaceutical industry consistently accusing India’s huge generics industry of riding roughshod over patents.

India, in turn, has voiced dismay about US Congress proposals to curb visas for high-tech workers employed by the flagship Indian outsourcing industry working for US clients on-site. Biden, who arrived in India on Monday evening, leaves tomorrow for Singapore.