New Delhi: The two “great friends”, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, reunited at the White House during their first bilateral meeting since Trump returned to office just over three weeks ago. They discussed trade, immigration, and working more closely to collaborate on defence, energy and AI.
Modi is the fourth world leader to be meeting Trump, following leaders from Japan, Israel and Jordan. He’s the latest head of state to “seek to placate an increasingly power-flexing Mr. Trump by trying to accommodate his demands—even as Mr. Trump’s promised tariffs hung over the White House meeting,” reports The New York Times’ White House correspondents, including veteran journalist Maggie Haberman.
In the report titled ‘Trump and Modi Shove Disputes Into Background in White House Visit’, the correspondents write that Modi “heaped praise” on Trump, “using his motto ‘Make America Great Again’ in English, despite mostly speaking through a translator, and applying the motto to India. ‘Make India Great Again.’”
The warm greetings were also extended to Elon Musk, NYT observes, taking note of the potential business interests Musk might have in India.
But all this flattery simply “concealed a number of tensions between the two nations”—trade and immigration, most significantly. Trump even bemoaned the United States’ trade deficit with India at a news conference, inflating the deficit from $50 billion to $100 billion.
Just hours before their meeting, Trump introduced reciprocal tariffs for countries around the world. India is among the countries that could face consequences.
Despite what the NYT describes as a “looming economic punishment”, Modi said that he was focused on doubling bilateral trade and that both countries would create a network for defence cooperation, collaborating on semiconductors, quantum technology and AI.
NYT is unforgiving in its description of the power play between Modi and Trump.
“Even on an issue that has infuriated some of his constituents in India, Mr. Modi sought to placate Mr. Trump. At one point, Mr. Modi was asked about a US military plane filled with migrants from India that the United States sent to the Indian state of Punjab last week,” the report says. “Video posted by a top U.S. border official showed migrants in shackles, and prompted outrage in India. Mr. Modi made no acknowledgement of that.”
The Washington Post reports that the meeting is “one of the earliest measures of how Trump will handle his relationship with New Delhi”.
The report, with a shared byline, including that of the publication’s incoming South Asia bureau chief Pranshu Verma, says that the partnership is “a pillar of Washington’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, but one that is beset with trouble spots on illegal immigration, visas, America’s large trade deficit with India and controversies over India’s attempted assassination of a Sikh activist on American soil”.
In one of the few moments that Modi spoke English, the report adds, Modi “became the latest leader trying to foster a personal relationship with Trump”. He borrowed Trump’s MAGA rhetoric, it says, to announce a “mega partnership” for prosperity.
“Modi visited Washington armed with concessions aimed at averting a trade war and staving off damaging tariffs on the world’s fifth-largest economy,” the Washington Post reports. “Trump also sought to flatter his Indian counterpart, grinning as he responded to a question about who won their negotiations.”
“He’s a much tougher negotiator than me,” Trump said about Modi. “He’s a much better negotiator than me.”
Politico reports that the Modi-Trump visit was overshadowed by Trump’s announcement that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and is seeking an end to the war in Ukraine.
“The meeting, Trump’s fourth with a visiting leader since taking office, took place against the backdrop of the president’s comments over the past two days about his desire to end the war in Ukraine…” reports Politico. “Modi, sitting beside Trump in the Oval Office earlier, affirmed Trump’s inclination to end the conflict in Ukraine, stating that India ‘is on the side of peace’.”
The report goes on to say that as the leaders of the “world’s oldest and largest democracies, respectively, Trump and Modi have formed a strong personal relationship based on their shared populist vision and mutual desire to knock down checks on executive power—and a worldview based more on national interests than democratic values”.
In its newsletter China Watcher, Politico writes that Trump and Modi are both eyeing Beijing as they hash out their disputes over trade and immigration.
“China—with which India shares a long and troubled border—sits alongside that agenda of hot button domestic issues,” the newsletter says. “But Modi may first need clarity from Trump about his China policy. Trump has sown confusion in New Delhi by hitting Beijing with a (relatively) modest 10 percent tariff this month after threatening levies as high as 60 percent. Modi may also wonder whether Trump’s routine public praise for China’s leader Xi Jinping (Trump said he ‘loves talking’ with Xi in an interview Sunday) signals the US president is now more dove than hawk.”
Meanwhile, the BBC, reporting from across Washington DC, London and Singapore, says that Modi and Trump hailed the meeting as a “mega partnership” for prosperity, echoing Modi’s formula of MAGA + MIGA = MEGA.
“While both men praised each other’s leadership, Trump criticised India for having some of the highest trade tariffs in the world, calling them a ‘big problem’,” the BBC reports. “The Indian leader, seeking to soften impending trade barriers, said he was open to reducing tariffs on US goods, repatriating undocumented Indian nationals and buying military fighter jets from the US.”
Reuters reports that Trump and Modi avoided discussing minority rights.
“Concerns over India’s human rights track record have taken a bipartisan backseat in Washington in recent years as India gained clout by boosting its US trade and emerging as a partner in countering China, experts say, noting Trump’s second presidency will continue that trend,” the report says.
“The leaders’ formal remarks as they met at the White House and then spoke at a joint press conference made no mention of rights issues, and neither did their online statements.”
In the past, former president Biden also maintained strong ties with India, but his top diplomat Anthony Blinken occasionally condemned minority abuses in India. The US State Department, too, has released several reports on human rights and religious freedom, which the Indian government has dismissed as deeply biased.
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