Trade, defense to dominate Modi-Trump meeting in US next week

Trade, defense and nuclear cooperation are likely to dominate Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump next week on Feb 12-13.

Announcing Modi's official working visit, foreign secretary Vikram Misri on Feb 7 said the Modi would be among the first world leaders to visit the US in the first few weeks of the second Trump administration, in a sign of the bipartisan US support for the partnership with India.

Modi will fly to Washington from Paris where he will participate in an AI summit on Feb 10 and 11 and also have a bilateral meeting with President Emmanuel Macron.

Modi will have restricted and delegation-level talks with Trump and interact with business leaders, as well as the Indian community, on Feb 13. Officials, however, didn't comment on speculation that Elon Musk might call on Modi during the visit.

While Misri did not confirm that the negotiations with the first Trump administration for a trade deal would be resumed, he said very intense discussions are likely on trade and investment as this remained a priority issue for India. India is hoping for a restoration of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) trade benefits that had been revoked by the previous Trump administration. The talks are also expected to see some progress in the negotiations for joint development of small modular reactors.

Misri said there has been a very close rapport between Trump and Modi, dating back to the US leader's first term. "There is a clear convergence of interests between the two countries in several areas, including trade, investment, technology, defence, counter-terrorism, Indo-Pacific and people to people contacts," he said.

"The visit will be a valuable opportunity to engage the new administration on all areas of mutual interest. This has been one of our strongest international partnerships in recent years and the prime minister's visit is in line with our steady engagement with the new administration," he added.

Misri said the 5.4 million-strong Indian community in US and more than 350,000 Indian students pursuing higher education in American universities further strengthen the bond between India & US.

Reciprocal tariffs next week: Trump

President Trump on Feb 7 said that he plans to unveil reciprocal tariffs next week in a major escalation of his trade war with US economic partners.

Trump made the announcement during a meeting with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Feb 7 and said the action would affect “everyone,” without specifying exactly what measures he plans to take.

“I’ll be announcing that next week — on reciprocal trade — so that we’re treated evenly with other countries. We don’t want any more or any less,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he planned to hold a press conference on the matter. He said he planned to hold a meeting on the issue Monday or Tuesday.

At a White House press conference on Feb 7 Trump suggested that the reciprocal tariffs could come in lieu of the 10-20% universal import duty plan at the center of his economic message during the campaign. He said he was inclined to do “mostly” reciprocal tariffs over global import duties.

“I think that’s the only fair way to do it. That way, nobody’s hurt. They charge us. We charge them. It’s the same thing,” Trump said. “I seem to be going in that line as opposed to a flat fee, tariff,” he added.