Trade, energy, defence the buzzwords

The Donald Trump administration wants to see India purchase more American defence equipment, prioritize American defence technology, buy more American energy products, and move towards a "fair" trade deal by the end of this year, a senior Trump administration official said on Thursday.

- Prashant Jha [e-mail]

WASHINGTON:

The official added that India's "early body signals" on trade were positive, and conversations with India procuring a number of US defence systems were proceeding in a positive direction.

Speaking to reporters in the run-up to Modi's meeting with Trump, the senior administration official recalled Trump's personal bonhomie with Modi, Trump's support to India during the border crisis with China in 2020, and claimed that within Quad, at the leader level, the relationship between Trump and Modi was the strongest.

The official also described the US-India partnership as perhaps the "most critical partnership of the 21st century", a phrase that now has bipartisan support given its frequent use by the last Democratic administration.

The official added that the Trump administration will continue to deepen technology cooperation with India, especially in the domains of semiconductors, critical minerals, and supply chain resilience and diversification with the aim of ensuring that "free societies" continue to be ahead in the race.

Key announcements were expected in this regard after the leaders meet.

Laying the broad context of the meeting between the top leaders scheduled for Thursday evening ET (early Friday morning IST), a second Trump administration official said that the President was "proud" of his close relationship with Modi, looked forward to building on the achievements of the last Trump administration, and the US was "proud of the substantial Indian diaspora" that had made "incredible contributions" in various fields.

The meeting's core focus on Thursday is expected to be on defence, trade, energy, infrastructure and regional partnerships.