WASHINGTON—Senior Trump administration officials say President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss a wide range of topics on Thursday, including defense, energy, infrastructure, trade, and regional partnerships.
Modi is set to visit Trump at the White House in the afternoon. He will become the third foreign leader to visit Trump since his return to the White House after the president’s meetings last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru.
One senior official said that the administration is looking to expand defense sales to India and that the president will prioritize the country as a critical importer of American energy as he looks to increase American energy exports. On trade, Trump and Modi are expected to discuss ways to better the U.S.-India trade relationship and reduce the bilateral trade deficit.
The president notably signed a major memorandum just hours before the meeting announcing a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs against every country that imposes them on the United States.
“And on trade, I have decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Trump said.
“In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff,” he added.
As for regional partnerships, Trump administration officials said he and Modi are expected to discuss bolstering the Quad partnership between the United States, India, Japan, and Australia to foster Indo-Pacific peace and stability.
One official noted the significance of the U.S.-India relationship in America’s Indo-Pacific strategy, noting there are geopolitical and economic elements at play.
“This is, some might argue, one of the most critical, if not the most critical bilateral relationship, of the 21st century,” the official said. “President Trump is going to do his part, I can assure, to ensure that that remains a foundational element moving forward in this term.”
