Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived in the United States to hold high-stakes talks with President Donald Trump in the face of concerns in New Delhi over Washington's new America First trade agenda as well as its approach on immigration. The prime minister will be hosted by the US President on Thursday in what would be the first bilateral talks between the two leaders since Trump assumed the presidency for a second term last month.
With Trump's tariff policy sending shockwaves across the world, Modi's key priority is likely to be to pre-empt any punitive trade action by Washington against India. People closely tracking India-US ties said there is a possibility of both sides exploring the option of looking at a trade pact to avoid high tariffs and expand the overall trade basket. In their meeting, the two leaders are likely to focus on ramping up India-US cooperation in sectors like trade, investment, energy, defence, technology, and immigration.
Apart from some possible sector-specific outcomes, it will be interesting to see the optics and what kind of broader signal the meeting between Modi and Trump, known for their personal bonhomie, generates. Modi arrived right after his visit to France where he had co-chaired the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron. He is the fourth foreign leader hosted by Trump over the weeks since his inauguration. Within less than a month of the start of his second term in the White House, Trump has hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
