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Buy more US security equipment, move towards fair trade ties: Trump to Modi
US indicates Modi’s visit to White House in the works as early as February.
Washington: President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday that India needed to buy more American security equipment and move towards a fair bilateral trading arrangement with the US, the White House has said. This was the first call between the two leaders since Trump took office.
The two leaders held what the White House termed a “productive call”, where they expressed their commitment to the relationship and also discussed plans for Modi’s visit to the White House, “underscoring the strength of the friendship and strategic ties between our nations”.
India is understood to be keen on an early meeting between the two leaders and there is speculation that Modi, after attending an Artificial intelligence (AI) summit in Paris in the second week of February, may head for a quick visit to Washington DC for a meeting with Trump. Neither side has confirmed the visit, but the White House statement is the first official indication that a visit may be in the works. The Indian readout of the call merely mentioned that the leaders agreed to “meet soon at a mutually convenient date”.
In its readout of the call, the White House also said that Trump and Modi had discussed “expanding and deepening cooperation”, and a range of regional issues “including security in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe”. This broadly aligned with Indian readout, which stated that the two leaders had “reaffirmed their commitment for a mutually beneficial and trusted partnership” and exchanged views on global issues, including Ukraine and West Asia.
Trump’s asks on defence and trade
But the real difference in the two readouts, in terms of the framing and emphasis rather than the subjects itself, were on the specifics of the bilateral relationship.
While the Indian readout referred to five issues that the two leaders discussed and agreed to advance — technology, trade, investment, energy and defence — the White House publicly highlighted the Trump’s clear demands on two issues.
“The President emphasised the importance of India increasing its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship,” the US readout of the call said.
On trade, Trump has often referred to India as a “tariff king”, raised the issue of India’s trade surplus, and spoken of the non-reciprocal nature of the trade relationship based on his understanding that India charges higher tariffs for US imports than US charges for Indian imports. In his first term, Trump terminated India’s designation as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) that allowed India to export a set of specified products duty free to US. In the decision declaring the intent to terminate India’s status in March 2019, Trump’s then US Trade Representative’s office had said, “India has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious negative effects on United States commerce.”
India’s trade surplus in goods with the US was over $41 billion from January to November of 2024. In recent weeks, Delhi has signaled a willingness to reduce tariffs in specific sectors, purchase more energy from the US to bridge the deficit, and even embark on discussions with the aim of a trade pact. And contrary to his campaign promise, Trump has not imposed an across the board tariff hike. But in an executive order, Trump has mandated agencies and departments to study America’s trade relationships, deficits, unfair trade practices and explore prospects of agreements. The US statement on Monday indicates that trade remains on top of the agenda for Trump and the absence of immediate tariffs should not be over-interpreted as a sign that the economic relationship is stable.
On defence, while India’s acquisition of American military equipment has grown dramatically in the last two decades, including most recently with an over $3 billion Predator drone deal, the US national security state continues to harbour resentment at three dimensions of Indian defence policy. These include, broadly, the Indian military’s deeper integration with Russia, procurement from other non-US partners (including France and Israel) at what Americans often complain is at the cost of US and despite US enabling Indian exceptions for India in multilateral regimes, and the growing make-in-India and coproduction requirements set by Delhi. The statement suggests that the US demand for more Indian acquisition of made in America equipment may be an important prerequisite to deepening security ties, including coproduction initiatives.
The US statement did not indicate if Trump raised both these issues as separate subjects, or whether he indicated, as some in the Republican ecosystem have privately done, that India buying more US defence equipment (along with purchasing more US energy) will help make the trade relationship fairer. If this is the case, it will represent an intertwining of the trade and defence relationship with uncertain implications.
Quad
Both sides expressed their commitment to the strategic partnership, with the US side mentioning cooperation in the Indo-Pacific twice (in the context of security discussions and Quad) while the Indian readout omitted a mention of the region. A reference to Indo-Pacific is often diplomatic speak for discussions on China’s activities in the region.
The US statement said, “Both leaders emphasised their commitment to advance the U.S.-India strategic partnership and the Indo-Pacific Quad partnership, with India hosting Quad Leaders for the first time later this year.”
The Indian readout did not mention Indo-Pacific in either the sentence where other regions were mentioned as subjects of discussion (Ukraine and West Asia), nor did it mention Quad. In more generic terms, it said that both were committed to “to work together for promoting global peace, prosperity and security”.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar attended Trump’s inauguration. Along with his new US counterpart Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Iwaya Takeshi, Jaishankar also attended a Quad foreign ministers meeting on January 21, just hours after Rubio had taken oath. The Quad joint statement issued after the meeting had multiple references that indicated a convergence among the four countries in opposing China’s unilateral actions especially in the maritime domain. The ministers committed to strengthening Quad and engaging in more collaborative activities in the run-up to the leaders summit.
After the call on Monday, Modi had posted from his personal account on X, “Delighted to speak with my dear friend President @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. Congratulated him on his historic second term. We are committed to a mutually beneficial and trusted partnership. We will work together for the welfare of our people and towards global peace, prosperity, and security.” Trump has not said anything about the meeting on his personal account on Truth Social or official account on X till Monday evening eastern.
