Trade, security buzzwords ahead of Modi-Trump talks

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Modi will travel to the US for his first meeting with Trump in his second presidential term during February 12-13. He will go to Washington after visiting France during February 10-12 to co-chair the AI Action Summit with President Emmanuel Macron.

People familiar with planning for the trip said Modi is expected to stay at Blair House, the US President’s guest house in Washington. They said meetings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz were been firmed up, while work was still underway for a meeting with Elon Musk.

Modi will be among the first few world leaders to visit the US after Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and foreign secretary Vikram Misri told a media briefing on Friday that the invitation for the Prime Minister to visit Washington within three weeks of the new administration taking office “shows the importance of the India-US partnership and is reflective of the bipartisan support that this partnership enjoys in the US”.

Noting that the visit is a valuable opportunity to engage the new US administration in all areas, Misri said “intense discussions” are expected on trade and investment, which will be priority issues in talks between the two sides. Defence and security cooperation too is expected to be a key part of the agenda for the meeting, he said.

Modi will have a bilateral meeting with Trump in both restricted and delegation-level formats and senior US administration officials are expected to meet the PM. Modi will also interact with business leaders and members of the Indian community.

A joint statement is expected to be issued at the end of the visit.

“This has been one of our strongest international partnerships in recent years. And Prime Minister’s visit is in line with our steady engagement with the new administration following the election of President Trump in November 2024,” Misri said.

During Trump’s first term, Modi visited the US in 2017 and 2019, and he was one of the first world leaders to call Trumnp and congratulate him after his election victory last year. After Trump’s inauguration, Modi called him again to wish him and the two leaders agreed to meet soon during this conversation.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar had represented the government at Trump’s inauguration and the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in Washington on January 21 was the first foreign policy engagement of the Trump administration. There have also been contacts between the defence ministers and the national security advisers of the two sides.

“There has been very close rapport between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi dating back to President Trump’s first term, and there is an obvious convergence of interests between the two countries in a number of areas – trade, investment, technology, defence cooperation, counterterrorism, the security of the Indo-Pacific, and people-to-people relations,” Misri said.

Modi’s visit to the US will give “further direction and impetus to this very important partnership”, Misri said.

The trip, however, comes amid unease in India over the recent deportations of 104 Indians from the US. A US military aircraft landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, with photographs and accounts of those on board establishing that many — men as well as women — were shackled or handcuffed during a 40-hour flight.

Asked about Trump’s recent remarks about using the US military to take over the Gaza Strip and develop it as the “Riviera of the Middle East”, Misri replied: “On the Gaza Strip, you are aware of what our stand is on the issue of Palestine. It’s a long-standing position, it has not changed.”

India has consistently called for the end of hostilities, the resumption of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians and the resumption of dialogue aimed at finding a two-state solution.