By T N Ashok
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit the United States is more significant than ever at a time when the geo-political situation is fast changing, and new leaders take over in many countries. Modi’s scheduled meeting with US President Donald Trump on Thursday in White House offered positive results for the United States results in terms of their business expansion but for India, exact benefits are yet to be assessed. One thing is however clear. Trump remained firm on his policy on immigrants and Modi nodded to that.
The Indian prime minister praised Trump while angling to avoid the steep ‘reciprocal’ tariffs the US president plans. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually returned to the White House for his first visit of Donald Trump’s second term as United States president to cement the ties forged during the US presidents first term 2016 to 2020 and take their bonhomie further to mutual benefit.
Trump and Modi’s relationship has been dubbed a “bromance” in some media outlets – and that affinity continued to simmer strongly during Thursday’s meeting. The two leaders heaped praise on one another, while publicly sidestepping more prickly points of discussion. Chief among them was the question of Trump’s newly announced “reciprocal tariffs”, in which he proposes to answer foreign import taxes on US goods with rates equal to what each country imposes. Trump has been critical of India for its high tariff rate on foreign goods, even reportedly calling Modi the “king of tariffs”.
But at Thursday’s meeting, the two leaders announced they would pursue a “framework” for greater cooperation. “Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed that we will be in negotiations to address the long-running disparities,” Trump said, referring to the US-India trade relationship. “But really, we want a certain level of playing field, which we really think we’re entitled to.” But their newly announced framework went beyond import taxes, to include collaborations on space travel, international security and the energy trade. Amidst all this big talk about future, the immediate tariff issue affecting Indian exports, was not made clear.
Both right-wing leaders, Modi and Trump have faced accusations of democratic backsliding in their countries. The two leaders also recently won re-election in their respective countries: Modi in June last year, and Trump last November.
Much of their public appearances on Thursday was dedicated to affirming their commitment to one another, with Trump applauding Modi as a “great leader” and Modi calling Trump a “friend”. Amid the backslapping, Modi appealed to Trump’s pride in his slogan, “Make America Great Again”, offering an Indian twist on the motto. “The people of America are aware of President Trump’s motto, ‘Make America Great Again’ or MAGA,” Modi said through a translator.
“Borrowing an expression from the US, our vision for a developed India is to ‘Make India Great Again’, or MIGA. When America and India work together, when it’s MAGA plus MIGA, it becomes a MEGA – a mega partnership for prosperity.”
A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi also compared his Hindu nationalist platform to Trump’s “America First” agenda, saying that he too puts his country’s priorities first. “One thing that I deeply appreciate, and I learned from President Trump, is that he keeps the national interest supreme,” Modi said through a translator. “And like him, I also keep the national interest of India at the top of everything else.”
And on Thursday, Modi arrived with his own offers, designed to deal with any economic measures Trump may take against India. The two leaders emerged from their closed-door meeting with an agreement to increase trade between their countries, including through partnerships on space travel, artificial intelligence and energy production. Modi pledged a “new scale and scope” to their shared objectives.
“We have also set ourselves the target of more than doubling our bilateral trade to attain $500bn by 2030,” Modi said. As of 2024, total trade between the two countries amounted to an estimated $129.2 billion, according to US government statistics.
The US has a $45.7 billion trade deficit with India, with the South Asian country exporting $87.4bn of goods to the US. Trump, however, has publicly expressed his displeasure with such deficits, promising to narrow them and increase US exports. He has blamed foreign tariffs on US goods, in part, for the disparity.
“Prime Minister Modi recently announced the reductions to India’s unfair, very strong tariffs that limit US access into the Indian market very strongly. And really it’s a big problem, I must say,” Trump repeated on Thursday.
On a note of optimism, Trump said the US bond with India is “the strongest, I believe, it’s ever been”. He also implied that India would increase its purchase of US energy products, helping to reduce the deficit. “The prime minister and I also reached an important agreement on energy that will restore the United States as a leading supplier of oil and gas to India. It will be, hopefully, their number-one supplier,” Trump said.
The US president also teased an international infrastructure similar to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, linking allies across the world. “We agreed to work together to help build one of the greatest trade routes in all of history. It will run from India to Israel to Italy and onward to the United States, connecting our partners by ports, railways and undersea cables – many, many undersea cables,” Trump explained.
While the meeting was expected to centre on countering China’s international influence, another security matter emerged between the two allies: the spectre of “terrorism”. Much of the focus was on Trump’s pledge to extradite Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana. In 2013, a US federal court sentenced Rana, a Pakistani Canadian citizen, to 14 years in prison for “conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist plot” against a news outlet in Denmark. He was also convicted of providing material support for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 175 people.
Modi praised Trump for his decision at Thursday’s news conference, comparing the Mumbai attacks to a “genocide”. He pledged “appropriate action” would be taken against Rana in India’s courts. “India and the US will stand strongly together in the fight against terrorism,” Modi said.
Trump, for his part, said the US would increase military sales to India “by many billions of dollars”. “In addition, the United States and India will be working together like never before to confront the threat of radical Islamic terrorism – a threat all over the world, actually.
Indian foreign office in a statement said President Trump and Prime Minister Modi launched a new initiative – the “U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century” – to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation.
The leaders welcomed the significant integration of U.S.-origin defense items into India’s inventory to date, including C‑130J Super Hercules, C‑17 Globemaster III, P‑8I Poseidon aircraft; CH‑47F Chinooks, MH‑60R Seahawks, and AH‑64E Apaches; Harpoon anti-ship missiles; M777 howitzers; and MQ‑9Bs.
The leaders determined that the U.S. would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation. They announced plans to pursue new procurements and co-production arrangements for “Javelin” Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and “Stryker” Infantry Combat Vehicles in India to rapidly meet India’s defense requirements.
The leaders resolved to expand trade and investment to make their citizens more prosperous, nations stronger, economies more innovative and supply chains more resilient. They resolved to deepen the U.S.-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation. To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade – “Mission 500” – aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
The leaders underscored the importance of enhancing the production of hydrocarbons to ensure better global energy prices and secure affordable and reliable energy access for their citizens. The leaders also underscored the value of strategic petroleum reserves to preserve economic stability during crises and resolved to work with key partners to expand strategic oil reserve arrangements. In this context, the U.S. side affirmed its firm support for India to join the International Energy Agency as a full member.
The net result is that Trump got what he wanted – a big step up in US exports of defence equipment and oil and energy products to India reducing the Russian exports to India in those areas. As far as India’s pressing issues on H-1B visas, it seemed that the Indian PM got no concessions. As regards the illegal Indian migrants in USA, Narendra Modi agreed to take them back. There was no relief. It was a one way street for the U.S. President Donald Trump though he praised the Indian PM sky high during the bilateral talks and in the joint press conference. (IPA Service)
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