Exchange of positive vibes fuels hope for an India-US thaw, Modi-Trump meeting next month

The officials in New Delhi and Washington, D.C., have also started exploring the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Modi and Trump on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia next month.

New Delhi: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi quickly appreciating President Donald Trump’s comment acknowledging the “very special relationship” between the two nations, both New Delhi and Washington, D.C., on Saturday signaled an intent to arrest the slide in bilateral relations over the 50 per cent tariff the United States imposed on exports from India.

The officials in New Delhi and Washington, D.C., also started exploring the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Modi and Trump on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia next month, even as uncertainty continued over the proposed conclave of the leaders of the Quad – a four-nation bloc comprising India, Japan, Australia and the US – in New Delhi.

“I will always be friends with Modi,” the US president told journalists in the White House early on Saturday, just a few hours after he posted on Truth Social that India and Russia appeared to have been lost to “deepest, darkest China”.

While Trump’s post on the social media platform on Friday was apparently triggered by recent meetings of Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Tianjin, his comment in the White House on Saturday was in response to a question from a journalist on the possibility of a reset in the relations between India and the US. “He (Modi) is a great prime minister. He’s great.”

He, however, also gave vent to his sulks. “I'll always be friends, but I just don't like what he (Modi) is doing at this particular moment,” he said, adding: “But India and the United States have a very special relationship. There is nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion".

New Delhi moved quickly to grab the opportunity to ease the wrinkles in the bilateral ties with Washington, D.C. “Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump's sentiments and positive assessment of our ties,” Modi posted on X, tagging Trump. “India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership."

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, too, later told journalists in New Delhi that the prime minister had always attached “enormous importance” to India’s partnership with the US.

Modi always had “a very good personal equation” with Trump, added Jaishankar.

The exchange of positive vibes between New Delhi and Washington, D.C., came even as the bilateral relations came under stress.

With no breakthrough yet on the negotiations on the proposed trade deal between New Delhi and Washington, D.C., Trump had on July 30 announced a 25% tariff on all goods exported by India to the US. He had also slammed New Delhi for buying defence hardware and energy from Russia, despite the former Soviet Union nation’s special military operations in Ukraine.

He had followed it up on July 31 by calling the economies of India and Russia ‘dead’. He had then announced on August 6 that an additional 25% duty would be levied on all US imports from India, thus totalling the tariffs at 50%.

He drew flak in the US itself – not only from Democrats but also from his fellow Republicans – for imposing high tariffs on India, which they said might push the South Asian nation closer to China and Russia. His close aides, like Senior Counsellor for Trade and Manufacturing Pete Navarro and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, however, continued to hit out at India, particularly for buying energy from Russia.

“India doesn't want to open their market, stop buying Russian oil, and stop being a part of BRICS. If you want to be the bridge between Russia and China, go be it! But either support the dollar, support the United States of America, support your biggest client, or pay 50% tariffs. And let's see how long this lasts,” Lutnick told Bloomberg on Friday. He also predicted that India would say sorry in a month or two and return to the table for negotiation for the trade deal with the US.

“India’s highest tariffs cost US jobs. India buys Russian oil purely to profit. Revenues feed (the) Russia(n) war machine. Ukrainians/Russians die. US taxpayers shell out more. India can't handle truth/spins,” Navarro posted on X in his latest diatribe against New Delhi.

Trump, on September 1, posted on Truth Social that India had offered to bring down the taxes on exports from the US to zero, but it was getting late.

Apart from Trump’s tariff tirade, what also riled New Delhi is the US president's repeated claims that he had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan when the two South Asian neighbours had gone to the brink of a war between May 7 and 10. Though Modi, himself, refuted the claim, Trump continued to repeat it. Besides, Trump had also hosted the Pakistan Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, at the White House, although New Delhi had accused him of provoking the April 22 terrorist attacks at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir with an incendiary speech against India.