Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned to the White Home for his first go to of Donald Trump’s second time period as United States president.
Trump and Modi’s relationship has been dubbed a “bromance” in some media shops — and that affinity continued to simmer sturdy throughout Thursday’s assembly.
The 2 leaders heaped reward on each other, whereas publicly sidestepping extra prickly factors of dialogue.
Chief amongst them was the query of Trump’s newly introduced “reciprocal tariffs”, during which he proposes to reply overseas import taxes on US items with charges equal to what every nation imposes.
Trump has lengthy criticised India for its excessive tariff price on overseas items, even reportedly calling Modi the “king of tariffs”.
However at Thursday’s assembly, the 2 leaders introduced they’d pursue a “framework” for higher cooperation.
“ Prime Minister Modi and I’ve agreed that we’ll be in negotiations to deal with the long-running disparities,” Trump stated, referring to the US-India commerce relationship.
“However actually, we would like a sure stage of taking part in area, which we actually suppose we’re entitled to.”
However their newly introduced framework went past import taxes, to incorporate collaborations on house journey, worldwide safety and the vitality commerce.
Listed below are 4 takeaways from their assembly.
Modi embraces Trump’s MAGA motion
Each right-wing leaders, Modi and Trump have each confronted accusations of democratic backsliding of their international locations.
The 2 leaders additionally not too long ago gained re-election of their respective international locations: Modi in June, and Trump final November.
A lot of their public appearances on Thursday was devoted to affirming their dedication to 1 one other, with Trump applauding Modi as a “nice chief” and Modi calling Trump a “pal”.
Amid the back-slapping, Modi appealed to Trump’s delight in his slogan, “Make America Nice Once more”, providing an Indian twist on the motto.
“The individuals of America are conscious of President Trump’s motto, ‘Make America Nice Once more’ or MAGA,” Modi stated by means of a translator.
“Borrowing an expression from the US, our imaginative and prescient for a developed India is to ‘Make India Nice Once more’, or MIGA. When America and India work collectively, when it’s MAGA plus MIGA, it turns into mega — a mega partnership for prosperity.”
A member of the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP), Modi additionally in contrast his Hindu nationalist platform to Trump’s “America First” agenda, saying that he too places his nation’s priorities first.
“One factor that I deeply admire and I discovered from President Trump is that he retains the nationwide curiosity supreme,” Modi stated by means of a translator. “And like him, I additionally hold the nationwide curiosity of India on the high of every little thing else.”
India’s concessions on commerce
Confronted with the prospect of economy-buckling tariffs, world leaders have appealed to Trump with numerous concessions.
Mexico, as an example, has despatched nationwide guard troops to its southern border with the US. Canada arrange joint process pressure to fight fentanyl trafficking and organised crime.
And on Thursday, Modi arrived together with his personal gives, designed to blunt any financial measures Trump could take towards India.
The 2 leaders emerged from their closed-door assembly with an settlement to extend commerce between their international locations, together with by means of partnerships on house journey, synthetic intelligence and vitality manufacturing. Modi pledged a “ new scale and scope” to their shared goals.
“We have now additionally set ourselves the goal of greater than doubling our bilateral commerce to realize $500bn by 2030,” Modi stated.
As of 2024, whole commerce between the 2 international locations amounted to an estimated $129.2bn, based on US authorities statistics.
The US has at the moment a $45.7bn commerce deficit with India, with the South Asian nation exporting $87.4bn of products to the US. Trump, nonetheless, has publicly expressed his displeasure with such deficits, promising to slim them and improve US exports.
He has blamed overseas tariffs on US items, partly, for the disparity.
“Prime Minister Modi not too long ago introduced the reductions to India’s unfair, very sturdy tariffs that restrict US entry into the Indian market very strongly. And actually it’s an enormous drawback, I need to say,” Trump repeated on Thursday.
However he flashed indicators of optimism, saying that the US bond with India is “the strongest I imagine it’s ever been”. He additionally implicated that India would improve its buy of US vitality merchandise, serving to to scale back the deficit.
“The prime minister and I additionally reached an necessary settlement on vitality that can restore the USA as a number one provider of oil and fuel to India. It is going to be hopefully their number-one provider,” Trump stated.
The US president additionally teased a world infrastructure just like China’s Belt and Highway Initiative, linking allies internationally.
“We agreed to work collectively to assist construct one of many best commerce routes in all of historical past. It should run from India to Israel to Italy and onward to the USA, connecting our companions by ports, railways and undersea cables — many, many undersea cables,” Trump defined.
He added that it will enable the US to “keep the chief” — a possible reference to continued financial competitors with China.
An emphasis on preventing ‘terrorism’
Whereas the assembly was anticipated to centre on countering China’s worldwide affect, one other safety matter emerged between the 2 allies: the spectre of “terrorism”.
A lot of the main target was on Trump’s pledge to extradite Chicago businessman Tahawwur Rana. In 2013, a US federal court docket sentenced Rana, a Pakistani Canadian citizen, to 14 years in jail for “conspiracy to supply materials help to a terrorist plot” towards a information outlet in Denmark.
He was additionally convicted of offering materials help for the 2008 Mumbai assaults, which killed 175 individuals.
Rana has appealed his impending extradition to India, the place he’s more likely to face the loss of life penalty. Final month, the US Supreme Court docket refused to dam the extradition proceedings, and with Trump’s go-ahead on Thursday, it’s all however sure to occur.
Modi praised Trump for his resolution at Thursday’s press convention, evaluating the Mumbai assaults to a “genocide”. He pledged “acceptable motion” could be taken towards Rana in India’s courts.
“ India and US will stand strongly collectively within the combat towards terrorism,” Modi stated.
“We agree that as a way to get rid of cross-border terrorism, we want concrete actions. And I’m very grateful to President Trump that, in 2008, anyone who carried out genocide in India — that prison is now going to be handed over to India.”
Trump, for his half, stated the US would improve army gross sales to India “by many billions of {dollars}”.
“As well as, the USA and India will likely be working collectively like by no means earlier than to confront the specter of radical Islamic terrorism — a menace all around the world, truly.”
Modi, nonetheless, has been accused of turning a blind eye to anti-Muslim violence and spreading anti-Muslim hate speech.
Trump faces questions on Ukraine peace deal
One subject, nonetheless, that continued to crop up had little to do with the US-India relations.
As an alternative, Trump repeatedly fielded questions from reporters about his discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the battle in Ukraine.
The battle began three years in the past in February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the nation. However on Wednesday, a flurry of high-profile calls raised hopes of a potential peace deal.
Trump had introduced that morning that he had carried out a “prolonged and extremely productive cellphone name” with Putin. He adopted up with a second name to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However whereas Trump and Putin exchanged agreements to go to one another’s international locations, Ukraine and its European allies expressed rising scepticism in regards to the supposed negotiations.
Zelenskyy urged worldwide leaders to not take Putin’s assurances at face worth — and instructed information shops {that a} peace negotiated with out Ukraine’s consent was no peace in any respect.
Trump, in the meantime, appeared to echo Russian speaking factors at his press convention with Modi. Russia has lengthy maintained that Ukraine’s want to enter the NATO alliance was a part of its motivations for battle.
“Russia has gotten themselves into one thing that I feel they need they didn’t. If I had been president, it will not have occurred,” Trump stated.
“Now, Russia’s taken over a reasonably large chunk of territory. And so they even have stated from day one, lengthy earlier than President Putin, they’ve stated they can’t have Ukraine be in NATO. They stated that very strongly. I truly suppose that that was the factor that induced the beginning of the battle.”
Russia has argued that the US assured the previous Soviet Union in 1990 that NATO would develop “not one inch eastward” — although no formal settlement on the matter was ever struck.
Trump beforehand stated it was “unlikely” that Ukraine would achieve again the territory Russia began to take with the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
However when requested on Thursday if Russia would surrender something within the peace negotiations, Trump dodged the query.
“It’s too early to say what’s going to occur. Perhaps Russia will surrender rather a lot, perhaps they gained’t, and it’s all depending on what will occur.”
