Newsman: President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have spoken about easing tariffs, resolving trade concerns between the two countries at the White House on Thursday. Two leaders agreed to work to reduce a large trade deficit and to collaborate more closely on defense, energy and artificial intelligence during meetings. Modi and Trump also agreed to deepen security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a thinly veiled reference to competition with growing China in the region.
Modi and Trump said they also discussed immigration, with the Indian prime minister saying India will take back any of its citizens living illegally in the U.S.
Trump said he’s confident the two countries can work to reduce the current nearly $100 billion trade deficit in India’s favor, largely by increasing oil and gas exports from the U.S and by selling more arms to the South Asian nation.
Trump also agreed to Modi’s request that the U.S. extradite Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-born Canadian suspected to have been involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that killed more than 160 people.
During his East Room press conference, Trump said the Ukraine war would not have happened if the West had barred Ukraine from future membership in NATO, the same rationale Putin has used. And he said — simply because of Russia’s opposition to it — a potential peace deal would likely rule that NATO membership out as well, all but pulling a critical bargaining chip for Ukraine and its Western allies off the table.
“I think that’s the way it’s going to have to be,” Trump said of barring Ukraine from the alliance that would serve as the strongest guarantor of its future security.
Modi, sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office affirmed Trump’s inclination to end the conflict in Ukraine, stating that India “is on the side of peace.”
Modi, during the press conference in the East Room, adopted Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan as representative of his own nationalist vision for India.
“Our vision for a developed India is to Make India Great Again, or “MIGA,” he said. “When America and India work together,” he went on, combining MAGA and MIGA, “it becomes MEGA, a mega partnership for prosperity.”
Trump called Modi a “much better negotiator than me,” while Modi played on Trump’s “MAGA,” or “Make America Great Again,” catchphrase, saying he he was determined to “Make India Great Again.”
Trump said New Delhi will not be spared and said the import levies imposed by India are “very unfair and strong.”But he and Modi agreed to work on a deal to resolve trade concerns, which Modi said he expects to be completed later this year.
Trump also said that his administration wants to bring down the trade deficit with India — which stands at $50 billion — by increasing U.S. energy exports to the country.
Modi offered to double bilateral trade with Washington to $500 billion by 2030.
Trump said the U.S. will increase its military sales to India and eventually provide F-35 stealth fighter jets. He did not provide a timeline.
Since 2008, India has contracted for over $20 billion worth of U.S.-origin defense equipment, and a recent deal will allow U.S.-based General Electric to partner with an Indian company to produce jet engines in India.
