Washington, DC
\nIndia and the US agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more US oil, gas and military equipment and fight illegal immigration.
\nThe series of agreements emerged after talks between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House, just hours after Trump railed against the climate for US businesses in India and unveiled a roadmap for reciprocal tariffs on countries that put duties on US imports.
\n\u201cPrime Minister Modi recently announced the reductions to India\u2019s unfair, very strong tariffs that limit us access to the Indian market, very strongly,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd really it\u2019s a big problem I must say.\u201d
\nThe deal to resolve trade concerns could be done within the next seven months, said India\u2019s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
\nA joint statement after the meeting said Washington welcomed New Delhi\u2019s recent steps to lower tariffs on select US products and increase market access to US farm products while seeking to negotiate the initial segments of a trade deal by the fall of 2025.
\nWhile both leaders \u201chad their perspectives\u201d on tariffs, \u201cwhat is more remarkable \u2026 is the fact that we have a way forward on this issue,\u201d Misri said.
\nSome of the leaders\u2019 agreements are aspirational: India wants to increase by \u201cbillions of dollars\u201d its purchases of US defence equipment and may make Washington the \u201cnumber one supplier\u201d of oil and gas, Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi.
\nAnd Delhi wants to double trade with Washington by 2030, Modi said. Long-planned cooperation on nuclear energy, also discussed by the leaders, faces ongoing legal challenges.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,\u201d said Trump.
\nMisri, the Indian official, later said the F-35 deal was a proposal at this point, with no formal process underway. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on any deal.
\nWhat Trump wants
\nAlthough Trump had a warm relationship with Modi in his first term, he again said on Thursday that India\u2019s tariffs were \u201cvery high\u201d and promised to match them, even after his earlier levies on steel and aluminium hit metal-producing India particularly hard.
\n\u201cWe are being reciprocal with India,\u201d Trump said during the press conference. \u201cWhatever India charges, we charge them.\u201d
\nModi vowed to protect India\u2019s interests.
\n\u201cOne thing that I deeply appreciate, and I learn from President Trump, is that he keeps the national interest supreme,\u201d Modi said. \u201cLike him, I also keep the national interest of India at the top of everything else.\u201d
\nThe two leaders praised each other and agreed to deepen security cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a thinly veiled reference to competition with China, as well as to start joint production on technologies like artificial intelligence.
\nAsked before the meeting about the steps India was taking, one source described it as a \u201cgift\u201d for Trump designed to lower trade tensions. A Trump aide said that the president sees defence and energy sales to India lowering the US trade deficit.
\nIndia\u2019s energy purchases from the US could go up to $25 billion in the near future from $15bn last year, India\u2019s Misri said, adding that this could contribute to reducing the trade deficit.
\nTariffs will continue to dominate the two countries\u2019 relationship, said Richard Rossow, head of the India program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a boxing match,\u201d he said. \u201cIndia is willing to take a few hits, but there\u2019s a limit.\u201d The US has a $45.6bn trade deficit with India. Overall, the US trade-weighted average tariff rate has been about 2.2 per cent, according to World Trade Organisation data, compared with India\u2019s 12pc.
\nFight illegal immigration
\nTrump wants more help from India on unauthorised immigration. India is a major source of immigrants to the United States, including a large number in the tech industry on work visas and others in the US illegally.
\nThe joint statement said the two countries agreed to aggressively address illegal immigration and human trafficking by strengthening law enforcement cooperation.
\nIndia may prove critical to Trump\u2019s strategy to thwart China, which many in his administration see as the top US rival. India is wary of neighbouring China\u2019s military buildup and competes for many of the same markets.
\nModi also worries that Trump could cut a deal with China that excludes India, according to Mukesh Aghi, president of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum lobbying group.
\nIndia has continued its ties with Russia as it carries out its war with Ukraine. India has remained a major consumer of Russian energy, for instance, while the West has worked to cut its own consumption since the war started.
\n\u201cThe world had this thinking that India somehow is a neutral country in this whole process,\u201d said Modi. \u201cBut this is not true. India has a side, and that side is of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC India and the US agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more US oil, gas and military equipment and fight illegal immigration. The series of agreements emerged after talks between US President Donald Trump and Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n