PM Modi set to travel to US, meet Donald Trump on February 13

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi will travel to Washington from Paris on February 12 for his first bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump after the latter’s inauguration last month. His official engagements are scheduled to take place over the next 2 days, with the summit likely on February 13.
Modi will travel to France next week to co-chair an AI summit that President Emmanuel Macron is hosting on February 10-11. While Trump too had been invited for the summit, the US is likely to be represented in the meeting by Vice President JD Vance.
With Trump not travelling to Paris, the bilateral summit with Modi will now take place in the US capital. Trump in fact had confirmed last week, after a phone conversation with the PM, that he would be visiting the White House in February.
In what was their first conversation since the January 20 inauguration, Trump had raised the 2 possible sticking points in ties - trade and illegal immigration - while pledging cooperation with India to deepen the strategic partnership, including through Quad in the Indo-Pacific. Trump sought a fair trading relationship with India, in line with his commitment to reduce the trade deficit, and expressed confidence that Modi would do what’s right on the issue of irregular migration.
Modi will be among a select group of leaders who will visit the White House in only the first month of Trump’s second term. Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to call on Trump on Tuesday. This is likely to be followed by a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II early next week.
While there was no official word from either side about the dates for the visit till late in the evening, sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said Trump is likely to host a dinner for Modi and that no community event had been planned till now for the PM to participate in. As of now, Modi is also not scheduled to travel to any other city. A meeting with business leaders isn’t ruled out.
While looking to iron out differences over trade, which India sought to address in the budget by slashing import tariffs on high-end motorcycles, the government will look for a reaffirmation of the US commitment to the initiative on critical and emerging technology that the Biden administration launched to expand the technology partnership and boost defence industrial cooperation. India expects strong convergence in this area as the first Trump administration had pledged support for transfer to India of advanced US military technology.
Modi and Trump are also expected to relaunch negotiations for a comprehensive trade agreement that didn’t work out last time despite some progress in the initial phase of talks. India will hope to soon have at least a mini deal that would restore Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) benefits that had been revoked by the Trump administration in 2019 because of restricted Indian market access.
The visit will also be an important occasion for the 2 sides to underline the strategic convergence in the Indo-Pacific where a close partnership between the US and India is seen by both as central to a free, open, inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous region. On the illegal migration issue, India has already made it clear it will accept all illegals, like it has in the past too, but after verifying the Indian origin of the people facing deportation.