Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday became the fourth world leader to meet US President Donald Trump in the first month of his second term, the duo picking up from where they had left off five years ago to the very month.

Modi and Trump had last met in Ahmedabad on February 25, 2020, at the Namaste Trump event the Prime Minister had hosted for the President in a US election year.

The bromance on display at the Motera Stadium back then was in full flow at the White House on Thursday afternoon despite the US having earlier in the day announced reciprocal tariffs that targeted India, too.

During their two media interactions, the two leaders made no attempt to hide their mutual appreciation, lavishing praise on each other. Modi went to the extent of describing the US as the “oldest democracy” and India as the largest. This seemed a change of stance for the Prime Minister, who has for several years now been projecting India as the “Mother of Democracy”.

Modi sought to rhyme his government’s slogan of “Viksit Bharat 2047” with Trump’s calling card: “MAGA” (Make America Great Again).

“If I say in the language of America, developed India means Make India Great Again, that is, MIGA. When the United States and India work together, that is, MAGA plus MIGA, the MEGA partnership for prosperity is formed,” he said.

The optics apart, the negotiations went on for about four hours — both in the restricted format and at the delegation level — in keeping with the working-visit nature of this bilateral engagement.

While Trump said “we are paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters”, foreign secretary Vikram Misri later maintained this was just a proposal when asked whether India had agreed to purchase them.

“On military sales to India, look, there is a process by which platforms are acquired…. There is, in most cases, a request for proposals that is floated. There are responses to those. They are evaluated,” Misri said.

“I don’t think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started as yet. So this is currently something that’s at the stage of a proposal. But I don’t think the formal process in this regard has started as yet.”

The two sides also agreed on a 10-year framework for a “US-India Major Defence Partnership in the 21st Century” that will be signed later this year. It will run from 2025 to 2035, Misri said.

He said the two countries had also agreed to move forward with the ongoing defence procurement negotiations for several platforms, including land and air systems, and co-production agreements.

India and the US will also initiate discussions on a reciprocal defence procurement agreement to better align their procurement systems. Each side will review its respective laws on the transfer of military technology, given that India is a Major Defence Partner with Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 and a key Quad partner.

Deportations

With two more removal flights expected in the coming days, the subject of illegal immigration from India featured in the talks. But New Delhi seems not to have made any headway in ensuring better treatment for the deportees on the journey home, after the row last week over 104 Indians being returned in a US military aircraft handcuffed and with their feet shackled.

Misri sidestepped a question on the treatment of deportees and focused instead on the larger issue of illegal immigration.

“The Prime Minister did emphasise that the return of illegal immigrants is not the end of the story. There is an ecosystem that thrives on this racket and that promotes and enables this racket and it is the responsibility of both countries to do something about this,” he said.

“And in that he sought the cooperation of the United States in finding out more details about these rackets and, if need be, through institutional cooperation between the law enforcement authorities and intelligence organisations of the two countries.”

China

Asked how he viewed the India-US relationship to counter China, Trump again offered to mediate between Beijing and New Delhi.

“I think we are going to have a very good relationship with China. I got along with President Xi very well until Covid…. As leaders go, I think we were very close,” he said.

“And, I think that China is a very important player in the world. I think they can help us get this war over with Ukraine and Russia. I look at India; I do see the skirmishes on the border which are quite vicious. I guess they continue to go on. If I could help, I would love to help because that should be stopped. That’s been going on for a long time.”

As expected, India stuck to its stated position of being opposed to any third-party involvement in resolving bilateral issues.

“We have always adopted a bilateral approach to dealing with these issues. It’s no different between India and China,” Misri said when asked to respond to Trump’s offer to mediate, one the US leader had made also during his first stint at the White House.

“We have been discussing any issues that we have with them (China) on a bilateral plane, and we will continue to do so,” Misri added.

Terror, Khalistan

Trump said that “India and the United States will be working like never before to confront radical Islamic terrorism” and that Washington would extradite Tahawwur Rana, wanted by India in connection with the 2008 Mumbai attacks. But the US President sidestepped questions on pro-Khalistan activities in his country.