Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the US in the last week of September. Though the primary reason for his visit is to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, there is a key objective to meet US President Donald Trump and iron out the differences between the nations on trade and arrive at a common ground on tariffs.
It is being speculated that the September meeting would give an opportunity for the two leaders to announce a trade deal. For the deal to take shape, there has to be movement on two fronts, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Indo-US trade deal.
Both the parties are negotiating and the states for Delhi are high since it has been slapped with 50 per cent tariffs by the US — 25 per cent for its high tariffs and 25 per cent penalty for buying Russian Oil.
On the Russia-Ukraine war front, Delhi is closely following the meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 to discuss a resolution to the war in Ukraine. In the last few days, Modi has already spoken to Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A resolution to the conflict is in India’s interest, sources said.
On the trade front, negotiators from India and America had been close to sealing a deal but Trump was not happy about what was agreed to by the interlocutors. So the negotiations will have to discuss the terms further but the two sides are focused on new goal for bilateral trade, Mission 500, which aims to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
In February this year, during Modi’s visit to the White House when he met Trump, both the countries decided to work towards the Mission 500. At that time, both the countries had also agreed that to realise this ambition they would require new and fair trade terms and they had announced plans to negotiate the first tranch of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral BTA by fall this year. For this, the US and India agreed to take an integrated approach to strengthen and deepen bilateral trade across the goods and services sector.
However, this plan has run into rough weather. Now, to schedule the visit, the Indian side has reached out to the UN headquarters for a speaking slot for the Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly. As of now, that has been scheduled for September 26 morning. Trump is slated to speak on September 23. If the PM’s visit takes place, it will give an opportunity to speak at the UNGA and hold bilateral meetings with Trump and other world leaders.
In the recent months, ties between India and the US have been impacted after Trump claimed to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, which was denied by Delhi. Later, he followed it with criticism against India on tariffs, and imposed 50 per cent tariffs.
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