Devirupa Mitra 
New Delhi: Less than a month after returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, agreeing to finalise a bilateral trade deal addressing “concerns” before the fall of 2025. New Delhi, notably, committed to increased purchases of US weapons and energy – Trump mentioned weapons including F-35 stealth fighters worth “billions of dollars” – in hopes of staving off the White House’s planned roadmap for global reciprocal tariffs.
The meeting took place on Thursday (February 13) afternoon local time in White House against the backdrop of Trump announcing, just a few hours before the meeting, that he was directing new set of tariffs against all US trade partners.
The two leaders later held a press conference, marking just the third time in 16 years that Modi has taken open questions – all of them on foreign soil. The first took place in London with UK Prime minister David Cameron in November 2015 and then with US President Joe Biden in Washington in June 2023. Modi had also visited the US just five months earlier for the Quad summit chaired by President Biden in September 2024.
As they took their places at the dais, Modi had teleprompters on either side, while Trump had none.
PM Narendra Modi and US president Donald Trump at the White House press conference. Photo: X/@POTUS
The Indian Prime Minister, who had previously coined the slogan ‘abki baar Trump sarkar (this time, a Trump government)’, used the moment to draw a connection with Trump’s signature campaign theme.
“If I speak in the language of America, a developed India means Make India Great Again, or ‘MIGA.’ When the United States and India work together – ‘MAGA’ plus ‘MIGA’ – it creates a ‘MEGA’ partnership for prosperity. And this mega spirit brings new scale and scope to our goals,” he said in his opening remarks in Hindi.
Weapons
Trump also said that India would be increasing its purchases for US weapons this year by “billions of dollars”. “We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” he added.
The Indian side, however, downplayed the offer, saying it was too early to decide as the acquisition process had yet to begin. “On military sales to India, look there is a process by which platforms are acquired…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 as 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,” said foreign secretary Vikram Misri.
Since 2008, India has procured more than $20 billion worth of US weapon systems.
Also read: Could a ‘Transactional’ Trump Leverage the Pannun Case to Get Modi to Buy US Fighter Aircraft?
No clarity on reciprocal tariffs
Trump also offered to make up the trade deficit with “the sale of oil and gas LNG, of which we have more than anybody in the world”.
Speaking at the press conference, Trump described India as having “unfair and very strong tariffs that limit US access into the Indian market very strongly, and really it’s a big problem”.
The US President, who had labelled India as a “tariff king” in his first term, claimed that Indian tariffs on US imports ranged from 30 to 70 percent, while the US trade deficit with India stood at “almost $100 billion”.
While taking a dig at his predecessor, Trump announced, “Prime Minister Modi and I have agreed that we’ll begin negotiations to address the long-running disparities that should have been taken care of over the last four years”.
However, he stopped short of assuring that India would be exempt from reciprocal tariffs. Calling India as the “highest tariff nation anywhere in the world”, Trump stated, “We are going to, if it’s India or if it’s somebody else with low tariffs, we’re going to have the same… We’re going to have whatever India charges we’re charging them, whatever another country charges we’re charging them”.
The White House factsheet on reciprocal tariffs explicitly cited India as an example of “trading partners [that] do not give the United States reciprocal treatment.” It claimed that while the US imposes an average applied ‘Most Favored Nation’ (MFN) tariff of 5% on agricultural goods, India’s average MFN tariff stands at 39%.
“India also charges a 100 percent tariff on U.S. motorcycles, while we only charge a 2.4 percent tariff on Indian motorcycles,” the document stated.
Noting that both have set a target to double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, Modi said, “Our teams will work on concluding very soon a mutually beneficial trade agreement”.
According to 2023 figures, the bilateral trade was at $190 billion, with a trade deficit favouring India for $50 billion.
Later, foreign secretary Vikram Misri told reporters that the plan was to “negotiate the first tranche of a mutually beneficial multi-sector bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025”.
He said that the themes would include “increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepening supply chain integration between the two countries”.
Immigrants
Last week, the Indian government faced flak in the parliament from the opposition for allowing a military aircraft to deport 104 Indian nationals in shackles.
In answer to a question, Modi said, “And as far as India and the US is concerned, we have always been of the same opinion, and that is that any verified Indian who is in the US illegally, we are fully prepared to take them back to India”.
He also claimed that illegal immigration was connected to a “human trafficking system”.
“Our bigger fight actually is against this ecosystem or this system that encourages such gangs to thrive, and I can tell you that India will completely support your endeavour,” he stated.
The US president also announced that the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana would be extradited to India soon. Rana’s extradition had already been cleared after all avenues of legal recourse ran out for him.
“We are working on the logistics of this, his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue,” explained Misri.
The Pannun question
Trump was also asked by the Indian media whether there would be a “relook” at the charges against a former Indian government official accused of targeting a US citizen who worked as a lawyer for a Khalistani group designated as a terrorist organisation by New Delhi. He did not respond to the question.
India has accepted the role of the Indian government official, with a high-powered probe recommending legal action.
Earlier in the day, a senior Trump administration official said, “I can tell you that President Trump, you’ve seen this in recent days, with respect to the persons we’ve brought home, he prioritises nothing more than the safety of every American, and that is the continued position of this administration.”
Notably, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was part of the Indian Prime Minister’s delegation. He had been absent when Modi had met Biden in Washington last year.
Adani
During the joint press conference, a reporter asked whether the bribery allegations brought by US prosecutors against Gautam Adani, “perceived as an ally of Prime Minister Modi,” had come up in the bilateral talks. Modi responded, “When it comes to such personal matters, two leaders of two countries will not get together on that topic and discuss anything on an individual matter.”
At the same event, Trump offered to mediate between India and China, appearing to believe that border clashes were ongoing. “I do see the skirmishes on the border which are quite vicious, and I guess they continue to go on. If I could be of help, I’d love to help because that should be stopped,” he said. This is not the first time he has sought to mediate between the two Asian giants.
India and China signalled the end of the four-year military stand-off at the eastern Ladakh border last October. Since the meeting between the Indian and Chinese leaders, a series of engagements have indicated a normalisation of ties.
The most recent India-China meeting was at Foreign Secretary Misri’s level in January. Asked about Trump’s offer to mediate, Misri told Indian reporters, “I think I suspect you know the answer to this question that we have. Whatever issues we have with our any of our neighbour, we have always adopted a bilateral approach to dealing with these issues and it’s no different between India and China. We have been discussing many issues that we have with them on a bilateral plane, and we will continue to do so”.
While Trump said that both will work to enhance cooperation in Indo-Pacific, especially through the Quad framework, he also highlighted that he had a “very good relationship with China”. “I got along with President Xi very well until COVID,” he said.
He also reiterated that he would like a trilateral summit with the Presidents of Russia and China after “putting out fires” to solve the Gaza and Ukraine wars to decrease defence spending. “After I put out the fires, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia and we’re going to see if we can de-escalate it, we can bring it down military, especially as it pertains to nuclear,” he said.
Bangladesh
During the earlier sit-in at the White House, Trump was also asked about Bangladesh. A reporter asked, “Mr President, what you would like to say about the Bangladesh issue because we saw and it is evident how the deep state of the United States was involved [in the] regime change during the Biden administration. Then Muhammad Yunus met Junior Soros also. So what is your point of view about the Bangladesh and what is the role that the US played?”
Trump said that there was “no role for our deep state.” “This is something that the prime minister has been working on for a long time and has been worked on for hundreds of years, frankly. I’ve been reading about it, but I will leave Bangladesh to the Prime Minister,” he added.
Foreign secretary Misri, at a separate press conference was asked how India assesses the statement by Trump on Bangladesh. He said it was discussed between Modi and Trump and that the former “shared his views and, indeed, his concerns with regard to recent developments in Bangladesh and how India sees the situation.”
“I think we hope that the situation in Bangladesh will also move forward in a direction where we can pursue relations in a constructive and stable way with them. But there are concerns about that situation. And the Prime Minister shared those views with President Trump,” Misri said.