Trump prods India to buy more weapons from US, repeats tariff threat before Modi's US visit

The White House stated in its readout on the phone call that the two leaders discussed plans for the visit, 'underscoring the strength of the friendship and strategic ties' between the two nations.

New Delhi: President Donald Trump has prodded India to buy more military hardware from the United States and sought a “fair bilateral trading relationship” even as the two sides have discussed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in Washington DC next month for a meeting with the 47th American president.

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“I had a long talk with him this morning (Monday). He is going to be coming to the White House next month, probably in February. We have a very good relationship with India,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Everything came up (in a phone call with Modi),” the US president said when asked about the details of his call with the prime minister.

The press release issued by the Government of India after the Modi-Trump phone call on Monday had no reference to the talks on the prime minister’s visit to Washington DC to meet the new US president. The White House, however, stated in its readout on the phone call that the two leaders discussed plans for the visit, “underscoring the strength of the friendship and strategic ties” between the two nations.

Modi is likely to visit Paris on February 10 and 11 to attend the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit to be hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. A short tour to Washington DC may be clubbed with his visit to Paris although neither New Delhi nor Washington DC so far indicated any date for the prime minister’s meeting with the US president at the White House.

Trump emphasised the importance of India increasing its procurement of US-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship, according to the press release issued by the White House.

“We're going to put tariffs on outside countries and outside people that really mean harm to us... Look at what others do. China is a tremendous tariff maker, and India and Brazil and so many other countries. So, we're not going to let that happen any longer because we're going to put America first,” he told the Republican Party’s members in the US House of Representatives in Florida on Monday. He had earlier talked about slapping “100% tariffs” on the members of the BRICS, a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Egypt and Indonesia.

India has contracted for more than $20 billion worth of U.S.-origin defense articles since 2008.

Trump’s nudge to New Delhi to buy more weapons from the US, however, indicated that Washington DC would continue to press India hard to lessen its dependence on Russia for advanced military hardware.

India was the destination of 9.8% of major conventional weapon exports globally between 2019 and 2023 and hence was the world’s largest arms importer during the period, according to a report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia remains the top seller of arms to India. But the deliveries from Russia to India dropped from 58% during 2014-2019 to 36% between 2019 and 2023. The US was the third biggest source of weapons procured by India during the 2019-23 period, accounting for 13% of the country’s total imports.

The erstwhile Joe Biden’s administration in 2024 notified the US Congress of potential sale of weapons worth $5 billion – marking a substantial increase from $2.5 billion in 2021. The latest big-ticket defence deal was clinched on October 15, 2024, when the $3.5 bn contract for India to procure 31 MQ-9B drones manufactured by General Atomics of the US was concluded.

Modi and Trump emphasized their commitment to advance the US-India strategic partnership and the Indo-Pacific Quad partnership, according to the press release issued by White House.

Modi is likely to host the 5th in-person summit of the Quad in India later this year. The proposed summit will give Trump an opportunity to visit India for the second time as the president of the US. He had earlier visited Ahmedabad and New Delhi in February 2020 – just about a year before his first term in the White House came to its end.