While preparing to go to Washington this week, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, spoke of relying on the warm relations he shared with President Trump during his first mandate at the White House .
But Mr. Trump can be a flying friend. Thus, when Mr. Modi met on Thursday, he should carry offers designed to facilitate emerging points of friction and preserve the growing links of India.
A major objective is trade. Indian officials said Companies are in talks To increase the purchase of American energy supplies, in particular liquefied natural gas. The two leaders should also discuss extended expenses for American defense equipment and potentially announce new offers.
In addition, Mr. Modi may indicate recent reductions in Indian prices on high -end American motorcycles – namely Harley -Davidsons – and the prospect of lower tasks on goods like Bourbon and Pacans, which are mainly produced in Republican states.
These movements, although largely symbolic in certain cases, aim to appease Mr. Trump’s irritation on the American trade deficit with India and the high import duties that make India a market difficult to enter.
On another large source of tension, illegal immigration, Mr. Modi has already offered concessions. India represents the largest group of illegal migrants in the United States outside Latin America. The Indian government has clearly indicated that it will cooperate with the expulsion campaign of Mr. Trump, even if it caused a political headache for Mr. Modi last week.
The arrival of 100 Indians chained and handcuffed on an American military plane, just a few days before Mr. Modi went to Washington, let his government rush to play the episode and contain a national reaction.
India is perfectly aware that commercial and immigration problems are a double potential hard stroke in the world of Trump’s concerns.
Until now, while Trump has even threatened close allies with punitive prices on these questions, India has managed to stay outside of his hair. If a country can walk on the striped rope of the return of the Hurricane force of Mr. Trump in power, India thinks that it is.
The two countries, the largest democracies in the world, have developed more closely economic and geopolitically when they see a threat shared in an increasingly assertive China.
Mr. Modi will be the fourth world leader to meet Mr. Trump since he took office about three weeks ago, after a visit to the White House by the Japanese Prime Minister and speaks with the Israeli and Jordanian leaders of the war in the Middle East.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi share a lot in common. The two are leaders of strong men who have largely transactional views of foreign policy, with the feeling of populist of what plays well with the base.
Even if Mr. Modi has shown a desire to follow the muscle flexing of Mr. Trump, he works to withdraw what India needs the relationship. This is particularly true with Mr. Trump’s push to cancel a range of legal actions from the Biden era.
India is also hoping to pass American legal actions linked to the accusations of a conspiracy from the Indian government to assassinate an American citizen on American soil.
Even during the Biden administration, officials struggled to deal with the case of largely private assassination, a sign of the importance of the commercial and defense links of the countries.
The relationship has benefited from bipartite support in Washington, including among the legislators who are now in Mr. Trump’s inner circle and consider India to share the burden of China.
In addition to the “very close relations” between Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi, Vikram Misri, secretary to foreign affairs of India, has listed several areas of “convergence of interest” between the two nations.
Mr. Misri underlined the expansion of technology and trade relations, as well as joint efforts on counter-terrorism and security in the Indo-Pacific region. He also underlined the increasingly influential Indian diaspora in the United States, as well as the large number of Indian students who are studying there.
An important area of alignment that could help the two leaders win victories is defense cooperation, in particular arms expenditure.
India is the world’s largest importer in military weapons, representing almost 10% of the world total, according to the Stockholm Institute of Peace Research.
For decades, inexpensive and reliable Russian equipment constituted most of India’s defense purchases. American equipment was expensive and out of reach due to longtime American suspicions on India’s links with Russia.
American defense sales with India now approach $ 25 billion a year, against almost nothing in 2008. India is expected to spend more than $ 200 billion in the next decade to modernize its soldiers, according to the Congressal Research Service, purchases in the United States are likely to grow.
When Mr. Modi spoke with Mr. Trump by phone shortly after his inauguration last month, “the president stressed the importance of India increases his purchase of security equipment made to the Americans,” said declared the White House in a press release.
India, however, has tried to go beyond the simple purchases of American equipment so that transactions generate jobs and industrial capacities essential at home.
“If India is to become a net security provider in this part of the world, you must also strengthen capacity,” Ashok Malik, President of India, said to the Asia group and former foreign policy advisor to the Modi government.
Some of the largest offers in recent years have introduced India into the development and production of equipment. In 2023, General Electric announced that he would jointly produce reaction engines in India. In recent weeks, the Biden administration has also announced that India would become “the world’s leading producer” of Stryker combat vehicles.
Concrete stages on these transactions, as well as the finalization of other purchases – including patrol and recognition planes for the Indian Navy – could be part of the announcements that follow Mr. Modi’s meeting with Mr. Trump.
“All the options are under discussion,” said Sanjeev Kumar, defense production secretary in India, before the trip. “We certainly want to accelerate transactions with the United States”
Alex Travelli Contributed reports.
