New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump Thursday took key decisions across multiple sectors including defence, trade, nuclear and artificial intelligence to deepen the Indo-US ties following their bilateral talks in Washington.
Both sides announced a joint “US-India COMPACT” initiative for the 21st Century. “COMPACT” aims to catalyse military partnership, accelerated commerce and technology—to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation such as defence, investment and trade, energy security, technology and innovation, multilateral cooperation, and people-to-people connection.
One of the main focus areas was cooperation in the defence and security space. On the security front, Trump announced his decision to extradite 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused Tahawwur Rana.
Trump also said India and the US would work “together like never before” to confront the threat of “radical Islamic terrorism”, which he said was a threat all over the world.
Both sides condemned terrorism and called out Pakistan to bring perpetrators of 26/11 and Pathankot attacks to justice and ensure that its territory was not used to carry out cross-border assaults.
ThePrint looks at the big takeaways from the joint statement issued by the two sides following the Modi-Trump meeting.
Also read:
Defence
On the defence front, a slew of decisions and offers were made. Both countries have agreed to sign a new 10-year Framework for the US-India Major Defense Partnership in the 21st Century.
US and India have agreed to expand defence sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defence industrial cooperation.
A joint statement released after the meetings said the “leaders determined that the US would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation”.
“They announced plans to pursue this year new procurements and co-production arrangements for ‘Javelin’ Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and ‘Stryker’ Infantry Combat Vehicles in India to rapidly meet India’s defense requirements. They also expect completion of procurement for six additional P-8I Maritime Patrol aircraft to enhance India’s maritime surveillance reach in the Indian Ocean Region following agreement on sale terms,” the statement said.
Indian Navy already operates 11 P8i long-range, maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
The US will undertake a review of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), in order to streamline defence trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies and in-country repair and overhaul of US-provided defence systems.
Both sides will open negotiations this year for a Reciprocal Defense Procurement (RDP) agreement and will accelerate defence technology cooperation across space, air defense, missile, maritime and undersea technologies.
Trump also announced his approval for the sale of the F-35 stealth fighters to India during his press conference along with Modi.
However, the joint statement did not mention the F-35 but said, “The leaders pledged to accelerate defense technology cooperation across space, air defense, missile, maritime and undersea technologies, with the US announcing a review of its policy on releasing fifth generation fighters and undersea systems to India”.
Incidentally, when asked by reporters at a briefing, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said, “On military sales to India, look there is a process by which platforms are acquired. You are well aware of that process. There is, in most cases, a request for proposals that is floated. There are responses to those. They are evaluated. I don’t think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started yet. So, this is currently something that’s at the stage of a proposal. But I don’t think the formal process in this regard has started as yet”.
Also read:
What Indian and US companies are discussing
Both sides launched a new initiative—the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA)—which aims to scale industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific. This relates to cooperation in the area of underwater domain awareness (UDA) technologies.
The US has offered a few co-production and co-development opportunities for UDA technologies, on a commercial basis. India is the very first country with whom the US defence industry has offered to work with such sensitive technologies.
Discussions are ongoing between concerned US companies and potential Indian partners in this regard. These include the Sea Picket autonomous surveillance system with sonar acoustic array, produced by Thayer Mahan.
Talks are also on for Wave Glider unmanned surface vehicle between Liquid Robotics/Boeing and Sagar Defence Engineering for co-production of 60 Wave Glider platforms in India.
Another item is the Low Frequency Active Towed Sonar between L3 Harris for co-development with Bharat Electronics. One more key project is the Multi-Static Active (MSA) between Ultra-Maritime for co-production with Bharat Dynamics Ltd.
Discussions are also on for the Large Diameter Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (Dive LD), produced by Andruil besides Triton autonomous underwater and surface vehicle, produced by Ocean Aero.
ASIA covers all these areas of co-development and co-production.
Trade and investment
Both sides have set a new goal for bilateral trade—“Mission 500”—aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.
Modi and Trump have also decided to have the first tranche of a mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by fall of 2025. Both sides agreed to demonstrate mutual commitment to address bilateral trade barriers with officials working closely.
Also read: Modi-Trump meet: US to push India to prioritise defence & energy purchases, reduce trade deficit
Technology and innovation
Modi and Trump launched the US-India TRUST (“Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology”) initiative that aims to catalyse government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote the application of critical and emerging technologies in areas like defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space.
They directed their officials to work on a US-India roadmap on accelerating AI infrastructure by the end of the year. The US and India will also collaborate to enable industry partnerships and investments in next-generation data centres, cooperation on development, and processors for AI.
Both sides launched the INDUS Innovation, a new innovation bridge modelled after the successful INDUS-X platform, that will advance US-India industry and academic partnerships and foster investments in space, energy, and other emerging technologies.
A significant decision taken was in the pharma sector. Both leaders have agreed to expand Indian manufacturing capacity, including in the US, for active pharmaceutical ingredients for critical medicines.
They launched the Strategic Mineral Recovery initiative—a new US-India cooperative programme to recover and process critical minerals (including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths) from heavy industries like aluminum, coal mining and oil and gas.
Energy security
Both sides re-committed to the US-India Energy Security Partnership, including in oil, gas, and civil nuclear energy. The US has committed its support for India to join the International Energy Agency as a full member.
Both leaders have vowed to fully realise the US-India 123 Civil Nuclear Agreement by working together to build US-designed nuclear reactors in India through large scale localisation and possible technology transfer.
They also agreed to unlock plans to build large US-designed reactors and enable collaboration to develop, deploy and scale up nuclear power generation with advanced small modular reactors.
Multilateral cooperation
Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to Quad and the Indo-Pacific. They agreed on a plan to convene partners from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor and the I2U2 Group within the next six months in order to announce new initiatives within 2025.
They also launched the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture—a new bilateral, whole-of-government forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce.
Modi and Trump backed Meta’s announcement of a multi-billion, multi-year investment in an undersea cable project which is to begin work this year and ultimately stretch over 50,000 km to connect five continents and strengthen global digital highways in the Indian Ocean region and beyond.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Ahead of Modi’s meeting with Trump, defence secretary outlines what projects could be in focus
Excellent and very detailed blog. Thank you for this information.