The recent visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump marks a significant milestone in the Indian-American relationship as this comes amid the deportation of 104 Indians and the announcements regarding increase in tariffs by the United States.
PM Modi posted on X "President Trump often talks about MAGA. In India, we are working towards a Viksit Bharat, which in American context translates into MIGA. And together, the India-USA have a MEGA partnership for prosperity!"
MAGA - Making America great again
MIGA - Making India great again
4 important points were discussed during this meeting:
Defence
The two leaders announced their plans to sign a new 10-year defence partnership and co-production of key weapons and military products.
"Javelin" anti-tank guided missile and "Stryker" infantry combat vehicle are among the co-production products of India and America.
The United States and India will review their respective arms transfer regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), in recognition of India's status as a Major Defence Partner with Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA‑1) and a key Quad partner. The goal is to streamline defence trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies, and in-country repair and overhaul of defence systems provided by the United States.
Along with other exchanges and security cooperation engagements, the leaders expressed to establish new ground to support and maintain the U.S. and Indian militaries' overseas deployments in the Indo-Pacific, including improved logistics and intelligence sharing, plans to increase force mobility for cooperative humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
Trade and investment
The leaders announced the ambitious "Mission 500" target, which calls for more than doubling bilateral commerce to $500 billion by 2030.
Declared intentions to begin negotiating the first phase of a multi-sector, mutually beneficial Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) by the end of 2025. The U.S. and India will take a coordinated approach to strengthen and deepen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector in order to advance this creative, BTA. They will also Work to increase market access, lower tariff and non-tariff barriers, and further integrate their supply chains.
The United States applauded India's recent actions to increase market access for American agricultural and medical products and to reduce tariffs on U.S. goods of interest in the following areas: motorcycles, ICT products, metals, and bourbon. India also expressed appreciation for the actions taken by the United States to increase Indian pomegranate and mango exports to the US.
The leaders praised continued investments of about $7.35 billion from Indian companies, including Hindalco's Novelis in finished aluminium products at their facilities in Alabama and Kentucky; JSW in steel manufacturing operations in Texas and Ohio; Epsilon Advanced Materials in the production of vital battery materials in North Carolina; and Jubilant Pharma in the production of injectables in Washington. These investments sustain more than 3,000 high-quality jobs for local families.
Energy and Security
The leaders emphasized their commitment to the U.S.-India Energy Security Partnership, which includes oil, gas, and civil nuclear energy, acknowledging the pivotal role that the United States and India play as top producers and consumers in shaping the world's energy environment.
In order to meet the expanding demands and priorities of our dynamic economies, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to expand energy trade as part of efforts to ensure energy security and to position the United States as India's top supplier of crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas.
Technology and innovation
The leaders acknowledged a new collaboration between L3 Harris and Bharat Electronics for the co-development of active towed array systems, and between Anduril Industries and Mahindra Group on advanced autonomous technologies to co-develop and co-produce cutting-edge maritime systems and advanced AI-enabled counter Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) to enhance regional security.
The leaders announced the launch of the U.S.-India TRUST (“Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology”) initiative, which will catalyze government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas like defense, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space, while encouraging the use of verified technology vendors and ensuring sensitive technologies are protected.
With plans for an early launch of the joint "NISAR" mission, the first of its kind to systematically map changes to the Earth's surface using dual radars, and a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to send the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), the leaders hailed 2025 as a groundbreaking year for U.S.-India civil space cooperation.
Multilateral cooperation
The leaders stated that a free, open, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region depends on a strong cooperation between the United States and India.
The leaders decided to strengthen diplomatic consultations, expand concrete engagement, and cooperate more with Middle Eastern allies. They emphasised how crucial it is to fund vital infrastructure and commercial corridors in order to promote regional peace and security.
The leaders emphasised the need to eradicate terrorist safe havens worldwide and combat the worldwide evil of terrorism. They pledged to increase collaboration against terrorist threats from organisations like as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, ISIS, and Al-Qa’ida in order to stop horrific events like the August 26, 2021, Abbey Gate blast in Afghanistan and the 26/11 assaults in Mumbai. The United States declared that Tahawwur Rana's extradition to India had been authorised, acknowledging a common goal to bring those who would harm our citizens to justice. The leaders also urged Pakistan to swiftly prosecute those responsible for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
President Trump and Prime Minister Modi, leaders of independent and dynamic democracies that respect freedom, the rule of law, human rights, and pluralism, reaffirmed the robustness of the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, which is based on mutual trust, shared interests, goodwill, and active citizen participation.
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