President Donald Trump congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leading India towards economic prosperity, as the pair met for bilateral talks on Monday.
The US premier welcomed the Indian PM to the White House and in brief Oval Office remarks, he praised Modi for being ‘such a great prime minister’.
‘Economically, India is doing very well’, Trump added.
President Donald Trump is seeking to forge a chemistry that can add new fizz to a flourishing relationship between the world’s two largest democracies.
The two leaders will look to expand ties on defence and fighting terrorism, but strains are likely on trade.
Trump has so far focused on outreach to China, India’s strategic rival, as he looks to Beijing to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea.
But Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China’s rise as a military power that has underpinned increasingly close relations in the past decade.
And the Trump administration says it wants to provide India the kind of defense technology it does to the closest US allies.
In a concrete indication of that, the US is set to offer a $2 billion sale of US-made unarmed drones to help in surveillance of the Indian Ocean.
Although Modi’s two-day Washington visit, which began Sunday, is lower key than his previous three trips to the US since he took office in 2014, there will be plenty opportunity for face time with Trump.
After their talks, Modi and Trump will make statements in the Rose Garden.
Modi will also have dinner with the president and first lady – the first dinner Trump has hosted for a foreign dignitary at the White House, although he has hosted the leaders of Japan and China at his resort in Florida.
Before he goes to the White House, Modi will meet separately on Monday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Trump and Modi share a populist streak and a knack for social media, but their economic nationalist agendas could clash.
While Trump champions the idea of ‘America First’ and wants to stop the migration of jobs overseas, Modi has his own drive to boost manufacturing at home, dubbed ‘Make in India.’
India is among the nations singled out by the Trump administration for their trade surpluses with the US, and it is also reviewing a visa program used heavily by skilled Indian workers.
Both sides want better market access. US is seeking stronger Indian protection of intellectual property rights, reductions in tariffs and narrowing of the $30 billion trade deficit. India has its own concerns, including over regulatory barriers faced by its producers of generic medicinal drugs.
Ashok Sajjanhar, a former Indian diplomat, said that India is hopeful but apprehensive. ‘Modi’s effort during the visit would be to get Trump strategically engaged with India – to get him to see the India-US partnership as a win-win for both countries,’ Sajjanhar said.
Modi will be hoping that as well as tackling the Islamic State, Trump will step up pressure on militant groups based in Pakistan accused of launching attacks on India. He’ll also want to learn about the administration strategy to stabilise Afghanistan, where India has committed $3 billion in aid since 2001.
Indeed, things are already looking positive for Modi on that front – one of the first big announcements to come out of talks on Monday was the US sanctioning Hizbul Mujahideen’s chief Syed Salahuddin and naming him a global terrorist.
Salahuddin, a senior leader of the militant group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) had vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley ‘into a graveyard for Indian forces.’
Meanwhile, climate change could be a contentious issue. New Delhi was irked by Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris accord, and his claim that India had made its participation contingent on receiving billions in foreign aid. India denies that and says it will continue to be part of the accord, regardless of US participation.
But despite differences over issues such as immigration and climate change, Modi is expected to assure Trump that the United States has nothing to fear from India’s growing economic clout.
Trump, who described Modi as a ‘true friend!’ on Twitter after his weekend arrival in the US, should find much in common with the Indian leader, with both men having won power by portraying themselves as establishment outsiders.
While ties with some traditional allies have been strained by Trump’s complaints that Washington has been the loser in trade agreements, Modi appears alert to his host’s sensitivities and emphasis on transactional diplomacy.
Writing in a Wall Street Journal editorial published just ahead of their meeting, Modi said that in ‘an uncertain global economic landscape, our two nations stand as mutually reinforcing engines of growth and innovation.’
India is currently the world’s fastest growing major economy, a status that Modi is hoping to cement by drawing in more foreign investment – in part by encouraging manufacturers to do business in Asia’s third-largest economy.
‘The transformation of India presents abundant commercial and investment opportunities for American businesses,’ said Modi whose government is about to implement a new nationwide tax system designed to scythe through red tape.
‘The rollout of the Goods and Services Tax on July 1 will, in a single stroke, convert India into a unified, continent-sized market of 1.3 billion people,’ he wrote.
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