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What White House press corps wanted and didn’t get in Delhi
National security advisor Jake Sullivan explains why there will be no pool spray at PM Narendra Modi-President Joe Biden bilateral
NEW DELHI: The White House, on behalf of the travelling White House press corps, asked India if a limited number of journalists, often termed the pool spray, could get access to the start of the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden, scheduled to be held on Friday evening at the PM’s residence in New Delhi’s Lok Kalyan Marg.
India, which, unlike the US, doesn’t have an institutionalised culture of a pool spray and where the government either relies on select photojournalists from select agencies or its own official photographers to release pictures from a bilateral meeting, said no.
The issue has come up twice in questions to American national security advisor Jake Sullivan, first at a briefing he did for reporters on Tuesday in Washington DC and then on Air Force One en route to Delhi.
Asked on Friday about what the US side was doing to ensure press access, and why Biden was meeting with Modi if there were no reporters allowed to participate in a pool spray, Sullivan said, “First, I mean, the President has private meetings with other heads of state where in the room are the teams and not the press. Secondly, we will of course provide a readout of the meetings so that you have the opportunity to understand what was discussed. And third, we have a significant number of issues that we need to deal with, with India.”
More specifically, on press access, Sullivan said that the meeting will take place in the PM’s residence which was unusual in itself. “This is not your typical bilateral visit to India with meetings taking place in the Prime Minister’s office and an entire program. This is the host of the G20 hosting a significant number of leaders, doing so in his home, and he has set out the protocols he’s set out.”
Sullivan said that the US government had worked hard to ensure press access, that those at senior levels had been involved in this, but that did not always yield to journalists participating in a pool spray. “What we can pledge to you is what’s in our control, which is ensuring that we are transparent and comprehensive in our readout of what the two leaders discussed, which we will.”
Asked if Biden had held meetings without a pool spray in the past, Sullivan said that he recalled instances where he took photographs since there was no one else present. “This is a circumstance-based issue, not some larger issue. Because, obviously, you have had access to bilaterals between the two. They have had press conferences, including the unusual circumstance of a press conference in which Prime Minister Modi took questions. So, that’s how we see it.”
But he reiterated that he had personally taken the issue “extremely seriously”. “We are doing what we can, but at the end of the day, we will have to kind of work through the parameters and protocols of these meetings in coordination and consultation with the host and, in particular, with the host at his personal residence.”
Asked if the US had made the request for the pool spray, Sullivan said, “Of course. We ask for pool sprays — we spend our lives asking for pool sprays and other things of course.”
