{"id":2402521,"date":"2025-02-13T22:01:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T03:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-and-modis-personal-ties-dont-mend-their-trade-divide-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2025-02-13T22:03:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T03:03:04","slug":"trump-and-modis-personal-ties-dont-mend-their-trade-divide-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-and-modis-personal-ties-dont-mend-their-trade-divide-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Modi&#8217;s personal ties don&#8217;t mend their trade divide &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrump-and-modis-personal-ties-dont-mend-their-trade-divide-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2402521&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>President Donald \u2062Trump and Indian Prime Minister narendra\u200c Modi met at the White House to strengthen U.S.-India relations,\u200d particularly \u2064regarding trade, tariffs, and defence. They announced\u200c plans to double bilateral trade \u200bto $500 billion by 2030, emphasizing the U.S. as a \u200dkey supplier of oil and gas to India. Though, Trump expressed dissatisfaction with Modi&#8217;s initial trade concessions, highlighting\u2064 a significant \u200ctrade deficit favoring India.<\/p>\n<p>During the\u200d press conference, Trump reiterated the need for fair reciprocity\u200d in trade and announced matching tariffs on countries that impose duties on American\u200d imports, including India.The leaders\u2063 discussed defense partnerships, \u2062including increasing U.S.\u2062 military sales to India, and emphasized the importance of technology transfer \u200dand collaboration, particularly in critical and emerging \u200dtechnologies.<\/p>\n<p>Despite their warm personal rapport, underlying tensions remain over trade barriers and\u200b immigration issues. Trump \u2063has criticized \u200bIndia&#8217;s\u200b high tariffs,\u2063 while Modi acknowledged\u2064 India&#8217;s \u2062readiness to\u2063 repatriate illegal citizens\u2063 living in the\u200b U.S.,aiming to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/vp-harris-tells-illegal-migrants-do-not-come\/\" title=\"VP Harris Tells Illegal Migrants: &#039;Do Not Come&#039;\">combat human trafficking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Amid thes discussions, both leaders recognized the importance of maintaining constructive dialog to minimize divergences, particularly given the rising\u200d global prominence of India\u2019s economy.The meeting served not just to reaffirm \u200btheir personal\u2062 ties but also to\u200b address ongoing concerns that could impact\u200d the \u2063future trajectory of U.S.-India relations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Trump and Modi hope personal ties can help bridge disagreements over tariffs and immigration<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1993549\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Donald Trump<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Indian<\/a> Prime Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/narendra-modi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Narendra Modi <\/a>may have warmly embraced during Modi&rsquo;s visit to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/news\/white-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">White House<\/a>, but the two countries remain far apart on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">trade<\/a> on the same day Trump announced reciprocal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/tariffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">tariffs<\/a> would start in April.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Trump and Modi emerged from a bilateral meeting, their first of Trump&rsquo;s second administration, to announce that the United States and India will be doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, with the U.S., in the words of the president, becoming India&rsquo;s &ldquo;leading supplier of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/oil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">oil<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/gas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">gas<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The two leaders also announced that the U.S. will be increasing its military sales to India &ldquo;by many billions of dollars,&rdquo; including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/f-35\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II supersonic stealth strike fighters<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>But Trump on Thursday indicated he was unhappy with Modi&rsquo;s initial trade concessions, which included reducing India&rsquo;s tariffs on some Harley-Davidson motorcycles from 50% to 40%, amid a trade deficit of $50 billion in India&rsquo;s advantage.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As we deepen our defense partnership, we will also strengthen our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/economy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">economic<\/a> ties and bring greater fairness and reciprocity to our trading relationship,&rdquo; Trump told reporters during a joint press conference in the East Room. &ldquo;Prime Minister Modi and I agree that we&rsquo;ll be in negotiations to address the long-running disparities that should have been taken care of over the last four years, but they didn&rsquo;t do that in the U.S.-India trading relationship, with the goal of signing an agreement. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We want, really, we want a certain level playing field,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s Thursday announcement that the U.S. will put matching tariffs on any country that imposes duties on American imports follows a flurry of trade activity in his first weeks on the job. <\/p>\n<p>Trump already imposed new 10% levies on China and 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. Trump singled India out by name in his latest salvo, saying the country puts far too many duties on U.S. goods.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Whatever India charges, we charge them,&rdquo; Trump said at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/president-trump-says-scotus-tax-decision-continued-political-persecution\/\" title=\"... says SCOTUS tax decision \u2018continued political persecution\u2019\">joint news conference<\/a>. &ldquo;So frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the meeting, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-tries-to-lock-in-ties-with-japan-and-south-korea-at-camp-david\/\" title=\"Biden solidifies bonds with Japan and South Korea at Camp David.\">senior administration officials previewed<\/a> that Trump and Modi would discuss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">defense<\/a>, trade, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/energy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">energy<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/policy\/infrastructure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">infrastructure<\/a>, and regional partnerships, including the Quad alliance between the U.S., India, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Japan<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/australia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Australia<\/a> before India hosts the next Quad leaders summit in New Delhi this fall.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, the meeting was an opportunity for the pair to resume their warm relationship, best demonstrated by the Howdy Modi event Trump helped host in Houston in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;President Donald Trump and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/maga\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Make America Great Again <\/a>are inseparable,&rdquo; Modi told Trump before the start of their meeting in the Oval Office. &ldquo;Whenever we talk about President Trump, one has to talk about Make America Great Again.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Then during the press conference, Modi added, &ldquo;Our vision for a developed India is to &lsquo;Make India Great Again&rsquo; &mdash; or &lsquo;MIGA.&#8217;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Modi knows what he was &ldquo;getting into&rdquo; with Trump, according to Center for Strategic and International Studies India and Emerging Asia Economics Chairman Richard Rossow.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[India knows] that President Trump has certain hot-button issues like improving U.S. exports and such, and resolving trade disputes for American companies,&rdquo; Rossow told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. &ldquo;The United States is a critical market for Indian exports, and so I think India wants to first and foremost avoid becoming a target of President Trump&rsquo;s tariff fighting.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Much to Trump&rsquo;s annoyance, India has traditionally protected its market to prevent, for example, the dumping of cheap <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/china\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Chinese<\/a> products into its economy.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs,&rdquo; Trump said during the press conference. &ldquo;We are, right now, a reciprocal nation. We are going to &mdash; if it&rsquo;s India or if it&rsquo;s somebody else, with low tariffs, we&rsquo;re going to have the same.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>For Rossow, India &ldquo;needs to keep the lines of trade open&rdquo; in order &ldquo;to avoid a trade war,&rdquo; but for U.S. companies similarly hoping for export and investment opportunities, &ldquo;India is only going to rise in prominence&rdquo; as it is poised to become the world&rsquo;s third-largest economy.<\/p>\n<p>Though the pressure may be on Modi, Trump quipped that the prime minister was &ldquo;a much better negotiator than me. It&rsquo;s not even a contest.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Days before Modi arrived in Washington, the prime minister announced tariff reductions through his government&rsquo;s fiscal budget. But during a background briefing call with reporters, a senior Trump administration official described Modi&rsquo;s tariffs announcements as having been &ldquo;well received&rdquo; but &ldquo;early,&rdquo; &ldquo;modest&rdquo; steps as the two countries work toward a &ldquo;fair&rdquo; bilateral trade agreement by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Besides trade, the other &ldquo;friction&rdquo; or &ldquo;pain&rdquo; point in the U.S.-India relationship, per Asia&nbsp;Group managing principal Basant Sanghera, is legal and illegal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">immigration<\/a>, particularly after Trump repatriating 100 illegal Indian immigrants from the U.S. last week in shackles created &ldquo;domestic challenges&rdquo; for Modi.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The arc of U.S.-India ties for the past two decades has been maximizing converges and minimizing divergences,&rdquo; Sanghera told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. &ldquo;At present, it&rsquo;s about reducing the differences on trade and immigration.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During the press conference, Modi told reporters India is &ldquo;ready to take <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">back verified citizens living illegally<\/a> in the U.S., but the fight is against the human trafficking ecosystem.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Earlier during the background briefing call, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/miles-anonymous-taylor-accidentally-exposes-the-fraudulence-of-the-mainstream-media\/\" title=\"Miles &#039;Anonymous&#039; Taylor Accidentally Exposes the Fraudulence of the Mainstream Media\">senior administration official<\/a> also previewed Trump&rsquo;s desire for India to prioritize the use of U.S. technology rather than that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Russia<\/a>, though the U.S. may need to reduce its own export controls to improve technology transfers. <\/p>\n<p>A second official added that the two countries were &ldquo;moving towards signing a new defense framework,&rdquo; in addition to &ldquo;a number of new procurements, which will add to the relationship and also bring down the trade deficit.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;India continues to buy large amounts of Russian-made defense equipment,&rdquo; Rossow said. &ldquo;India co-mingling advanced technologies from the United States and Russia might be inherently dangerous because the sensitivity that you can pick up on on radar signatures and things like that, that&rsquo;s intelligence we don&rsquo;t want anybody in the world to have.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Regarding technology, Trump and Modi also addressed critical technologies and minerals in the context of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supply-chain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"> supply chain<\/a> resilience and diversification, as well as the 2022 U.S.&ndash;India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/artificial-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">artificial intelligence<\/a>. The men separately spoke about a civil <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/nuclear-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">nuclear<\/a> agreement and the extradition of 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack plotter Tahawwur Rana.<\/p>\n<p>Sanghera, of the Asia Group, underscored the importance of realizing the commercial potential of the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, considering collaboration on &ldquo;small modular nuclear reactors&rdquo; is critical as China seeks to dominate with the same technology. <\/p>\n<p>To that end, Trump&rsquo;s meeting with Modi comes before an expected call between Trump and Chinese President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/xi-jinping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Xi Jinping<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For Sanghera, the U.S.-China relationship will not be at the forefront of Modi&rsquo;s visit but will &ldquo;be on their minds going forward.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not a pain point but perhaps an anxiety point that the Indians are going to be watching closely,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s meeting with Modi was Trump&rsquo;s fourth with a foreign leader at the White House in the past two weeks, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/united-kingdom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">British<\/a> Prime Minister Keir Starmer set to sit down with the president by the end of the month. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/egypt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Egyptian<\/a> President Abdel Fattah al Sis had been scheduled to travel to Washington next week but canceled his trip on Thursday because of Trump&rsquo;s demands for Arab countries to resettle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/gaza\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Palestinian<\/a> refugees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1993549\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1993549\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump and Modi aim to use personal ties to resolve trade and immigration disputes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2887,"featured_media":2402522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/trump-modi-scaled-1024x577.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3817,28205,16947,7221,3634],"class_list":["post-2402521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-diplomacy","tag-modi","tag-relations","tag-trade","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/trump-modi-scaled-1024x577.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2887"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2402521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402525,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2402521\/revisions\/2402525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2402521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2402521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2402521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}