Washington : Prime Minister Narendra Modi met billionaire businessman Elon Musk today, ahead of his bilateral with US President Donald Trump later. PM Modi’s meeting with Trump comes amid the US President’s moves on tariffs less than a month after he took charge.
The latest in a series of foreign leaders beating an early path to the Oval Office door since the Republican’s return to power, PM Modi shared good relations with President Trump during his first term. The prime minister met US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. His meeting with Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is also scheduled.”Had a fruitful meeting with NSA Michael Waltz. He has always been a great friend of India. Defence, technology and security are important aspects of India-USA ties and we had a wonderful discussion around these issues. There is strong potential for cooperation in sectors like AI, semiconductors, space and more,” PM Modi said in a post on X. India offered tariff concessions ahead of PM Modi’s two-day visit to the US, with New Delhi reducing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic American manufacturer whose struggles in India irked President Trump in his previous term. The Trump administration has vowed reciprocal tariffs on every country that charges duties on US imports, a move that will ratchet up fears of a widening global trade war. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump said that he will announce new tariffs at 11.30 pm. The US also sent back 100 illegal immigrants from India in a military flight. In response, India has vowed its own strong crackdown on illegal migration.The Trump administration wants to bring down the US trade deficit with India and hopes to have a fair bilateral trade deal with New Delhi in place in 2025, Trump administration officials said ahead of the meeting between President Trump and PM Modi.The meeting will aim to build on defence sales to ensure they are prioritising American technology, and the two sides are moving toward signing a new defence framework, one official said in a briefing for journalists ahead of the talks in Washington on Thursday afternoon.For nearly three decades, US presidents from both parties have prioritised building ties with India, seeing a natural partner against a rising China. But President Trump has raged against India over trade, the biggest foreign policy preoccupation of his new term.PM Modi “has prepared for this, and he is seeking to preempt Trump’s anger,” said Lisa Curtis, the National Security Council director on South Asia during President Trump’s first term, news agency AFP reported. PM Modi is the fourth world leader to visit President Trump since his return, following the prime ministers of Israel and Japan, and the king of Jordan.In February 2020, PM Modi invited Donald Trump before a cheering crowd of more than one lakh people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state Gujarat. President Trump could visit India later this year for a scheduled summit of the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the US. India may prove critical to Trump’s strategy to thwart China, which many in his administration see as the top US rival. India has also continued its ties with Russia, being a major consumer of Russian energy, for instance, while the West has worked to cut its own consumption since the Ukraine war started.
