 "Mission 500, F-35 jets and more… What PM Modi and Trump discussed for 4 hours")
What happens when two world leaders and two ‘friends’ meet? A lot. And that’s exactly what happened when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a sit-down with his ‘good friend’ US President Donald Trump at the White House.
After his visit to France, PM Modi made his way to the United States and held detailed discussions with US President Trump on ways to deepen and strengthen the India-US partnership. The meeting between the two came just hours after Trump announced a new reciprocal tariff policy targeting all US trading partners, including India.
The two leaders began their meeting with Trump welcoming the PM and sharing a warm hug. The US president also could be heard telling Modi, “We missed you a lot.” Following this, the two leaders engaged in discussions on trade, security, and international relations, with Vikram Misri, India’s foreign secretary, stating that the dialogue at the Oval Office in the White House went on for around four hours.
#WATCH | Washington, DC | PM Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump share a hug as the US President welcomes the PM at the White House
— ANI (@ANI) February 13, 2025
President Trump says, "We missed you, we missed you a lot." pic.twitter.com/XTk1h7mINM
What culminated from PM Modi and President Trump’s meeting is: COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology for the 21st Century), an initiative aimed at transforming bilateral cooperation across defence, investment, trade, energy, innovation, and multilateral partnerships.
Now, as PM Modi departs the US and returns after a ‘substantive’ visit, we analyse what this exactly entails.
Trade and Energy
Trade was one of the biggest talking points between Modi and Trump. In the meeting, both leaders set a new target — “Mission 500” — to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. Presently, the US is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade between the countries standing at $129.2 billion in 2024.
According to India’s foreign secretary, the two also launched negotiations for a trade agreement to be concluded by the fall of this year — in the next seven to eight months. Speaking on the same, Misri said later, “The two leaders announced to negotiate the first tranche of beneficial, multi-sector bilateral trade agreement by the fall of 2025… towards advancing this process and this issue did figure in some detail in the discussions as well, both countries will take an integrated approach to strengthen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector. This will include themes such as increasing market access, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and deepening supply chain integration between the two countries.”
India and the US also discussed an energy deal with US President Trump announcing that New Delhi would import more US oil and gas to shrink the trade deficit between the two countries. “They’re going to be purchasing a lot of our oil and gas. They need it. And we have it,” said Trump at a joint news briefing in Washington.
It was also decided between the two that plans would be unlocked to build large US-designed reactors and enable collaboration to develop, deploy and scale up nuclear power generation with advanced small modular reactors.
Defence
Another big topic of discussion between Modi and Trump was defence. The two leaders agreed that they would sign a new 10-year framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership in the 21st Century this year.
It was also agreed upon that the US would expand defence sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defence industrial cooperation. The two further announced plans to pursue this year new procurements and co-production arrangements for “Javelin” Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and “ Stryker” Infantry Combat Vehicles in India to rapidly meet India’s defense requirements. They also expect the completion of procurement for six additional P-8I Maritime Patrol aircraft to enhance India’s maritime surveillance reach in the Indian Ocean Region following the agreement on sale terms.
In the joint press conference later, US President Donald Trump also announced that India and America had discussed the issue of fifth-generation fighter jets and that Washington would sell F-35 aircraft to India.
Moreover, discussions were held for the joint development and production of Sea Picket Autonomous Surveillance Systems (Thayer Mahan), Wave Glider Unmanned Surface Vehicles (Boeing & Sagar Defence Engineering - 60 units planned for India), Low Frequency Active Towed Sonars (L3 Harris & Bharat Electronics), Multi-Static Active Sonobuoys (Ultra-Maritime & Bharat Dynamics Ltd.), Large Diameter Autonomous Undersea Vehicles (Anduril) and Triton Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicles (Ocean Aero).
People-to-people ties
No discussion on India-US ties is complete without talks on people-to-people relations, that’s what PM Modi and Donald Trump spoke at length about. The talks come amid the controversy over the military deportation flight — a video emerged showing 104 illegal Indian migrants being chained by the hands and feet while being deported.
Amid this, the two leaders did, in fact, speak about immigration with both of them committing to strengthening law enforcement cooperation to take decisive action against illegal immigration networks, organised crime syndicates, including narco-terrorists human and arms traffickers, as well as other elements, which threaten public and diplomatic safety and security, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both nations.
On the same matter, PM Modi later in the press conference endorsed Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and reiterated India’s stand on the issue, saying, “if people are living in the US illegally, India is ready to take them back”.
“Those who stay in other countries illegally do not have any legal right to be there. As far as India and the US are concerned, we have always said that those who are verified and are truly the citizens of India – if they live in the US illegally, India is ready to take them back,” PM Modi said while addressing a joint press conference with Trump.
Apart from this, the US also announced that it had approved the extradition of 26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana to India. “We are handing over a very dangerous man to India, one who is accused of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack,” President Trump announced later.
The two leaders also recognised the presence of the 300,000 Indian students in the US, who contribute over $8 billion to the US economy. The leaders discussed strengthening collaborations
Between the higher education institutions through efforts such as joint/dual degree and twinning programs, establishing joint Centres of Excellence, and setting up of offshore campuses of premier educational institutions of the US in India.
With inputs from agencies
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