MAGA+MIGA=MEGA: MODI

Modi links Trump's mantra of 'Make America Great Again' with the idea of Viksit Bharat as a symbol of 'Make India Great Again' to declare a 'mega' India-US partnership across sectors

- Prashant Jha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that US President Donald Trump's vision of Make America Great Again (MAGA) and his own idea of Make India Great Again (MIGA) can translate into a "mega partnership", with the two leaders unveiling an ambitious new plan- the US-India COMPACT for the 21st century in Washington DC on Thursday evening eastern time (Friday morning IST).

COMPACT, the abbreviation for Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology, will serve as the basis of India's ties with the second Donald Trump administration, and is a clear and interconnected blueprint that ties together a relationship based on deeper defence, energy, trade, investment, technology, innovation, people-to-people ties. It also envisages stronger regional partnerships in India's neighbourhood across the Indo-Pacific, West Asia and Western Indian Ocean. It has clear timelines and lays out clear outcome-oriented expectations from both partners.

Modi became only the fourth foreign leader to visit the White House after Trump's inauguration, and the first Indian PM to be invited to see an American President within the first month of his term a sign of the deepening strategic partnership as well as the past personal bonhomie between the two leaders. As Modi walked into the West Wing, he and Trump shared a warm hug, with Modi telling Trump that it was great to see him and Trump telling Modi, "We have missed you. We missed you a lot."

The warmth, partially a result of the shared experiences from "Howdy Houston" and "Namaste Trump", two large public events that the two leaders addressed in both countries during Trump's first term, was visible through the four hours that Modi and Trump spent together in the Oval Office during a restricted bilateral dialogue, during more extended delegation-level talks, at a press conference and at dinner.