Donald Trump and Narendra Modi vow to defeat 'evils of terrorism' in first White House meeting

US President seems to be consistent about his praise of the Indian leader over the last few years

Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump meet Indian PM Narendra Modi at the White House (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

Donald Trump declared the relationship between the US and India “has never been stronger” during a meeting with the leader of the world’s largest democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the White House.

Mr Trump said both countries have been affected by the “evils of terrorism” and the “radical ideology that drives them”.

Mr Modi and former President Barack Obama had a seemingly friendly relationship. Both had grown up with little money and were, by most measures, culturally popular leaders in their countries.

Mr Trump has proven to have strained relationships with several world leaders, namely a tense handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron and an awkward meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But Alyssa Ayres, a former US State Department official and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the US and India had a “huge, broad relationship”.

“This happens every time” Mr Modi comes to visit, Ms Ayres told The Independent, adding that ties between two had matured beyond the “next big idea or deal”.

It is a pattern established on the 2005 nuclear deal during George W Bush’s administration. India agreed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities and monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Thankfully there’s a lot more happening now,” Ms Ayres said.

Tanvi Madan, Director of The India Project at the Washington DC think tank Brookings Institution told The Independent that ahead of the meeting, Indian officials were “uncertain” about Mr Trump’s mood.

The President had praised Mr Modi when the Indian leader was elected in 2014 and Ms Madan pointed out that Monday’s joint statement showed Mr Trump still felt that way. She noted, however, the mood could change at some point in the future with just one tweet.

For now, however, India seems to be grateful that it is able to fly “under the radar” for the US, according to Ms Ayres. It has to date not been the subject of tweets or ire of Mr Trump, though Ms Madan points out there was criticism during Mr Trump’s speech withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Ms Ayres said that though India has emerged recently as a global leader on solar energy and plays an important role in the Paris deal, she doubts the pair will discuss environmental issues unless it is on Mr Modi’s agenda.

The overall tone of Mr Trump’s speech was “less hectoring” than it has been when other leaders have visited, Ms Madan said. Though she said she expected issues to arise privately about India’s trade surplus, climate change discussions may soften as India is set to become one of the largest importers of natural gas.

Part of the concern for India, though, is Mr Trump’s proposed federal budget which would slash funds to climate-related programmes in the State and Energy Departments that would have aided India in its quest to dominate the solar power field in an effort to adapt to an already changed climate.

However, the real high priority issues are on defence and counter-terrorism.

Though Washington and New Delhi share concerns about China's rise as a military power and it has underpinned increasingly close relations in the past decade, Ms Ayres said India has been “worried about a US-China ‘G2’ that would leave India out in the cold”.

Mr Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in April 2017 and though he was looking to Beijing to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea, he took to Twitter on 20 June to say that plan “had not worked out”.

Experts have said Mr Trump’s relationships with world leaders seems to be transactional. With India that transaction is likely to be the purchase of weapons and military co-operation.

Ms Madan said that defence is an easier conversation for the two to have on their first meeting because it means “a lot of tweetable wins” for the “world leaders in social media”, as Mr Trump dubbed the pair.

Defence Secretary James Mattis, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all met with Mr Modi and his team separately and were present during the White House meeting.

In the Oval Office, Mr Trump commented that India’s continued purchase of US weapons “always makes us feel very good...there's nobody makes military equipment like we make military equipment. Nobody even close”.

India has the fifth largest defence budget in the world, just behind the UK, and having a relationship with the US in defence technology innovation is key to establishing “primacy in the Indian Ocean”, said Ms Ayres.

As a result, it was announced that the US State Department approved the sale of a $365m (£286.8m) sale of a C-17 military transport aircraft to India and is set to approve a $2bn (£1.5bn) sale of US-made unarmed drones.

Mr Trump also announced the Indian, Japanese, and US militaries will be participating in a large, joint maritime exercise in the Indian Ocean.

One of the looming issues was the US stance on Afghanistan. In the joint statement, Mr Modi referred to “doing away...with safe havens” for terrorists in an obvious reference to Pakistan where Osama bin Laden and groups like Lakshar-e-Taiba – responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks – have been able to hide.

Ms Madan said Mr Modi wanted to emphasise to Mr Trump that “terrorism is a global problem, not just Isis or the Haqqani network”.

The US has designated new sanctions on Syed Salahuddin, the Pakistan-based leader of Hizbul Mujahideen – a militant group that fights against Indian control in the divided territory of Kashmir.

In 2016, Salahuddin threatened to make Kashmir a “graveyard for Indian forces”. US persons are now forbidden from financial interactions with him.

The move has helped India feel more confident about Mr Trump’s views on South Asia despite his lack of comment on it since he took office, according to Ms Ayres and Ms Madan.

Though Pakistan will inevitably be included in any discussions on terrorism for India, Ms Madan said Mr Modi will be “careful... not to hyphenate”. India wants to maintain the broad relationship with the US outside of any conflict issues related to its neighbour who is important to the US in the ongoing war.

Some issues will likely not be able to be resolved in this initial meeting, like immigration.

“Modi’s style is not to hector or be very assertive about differences,” said Ms Madan, adding that he prefers to have his ministers “play bad cop” on initial visits.

For immigration, he focused in the joint statement on the mutual goal of economic prosperity and job growth rather than the US reviewing the H1B visa programme which the high tech sector makes use of to hire many Indian citizens.

It has been Mr Modi’s goal to make India “the workforce for the world”, a statement he has made several times.

The Trump administration has put more scrutiny on meeting criteria for the allotted 65,000 visas a year given to Indians. To change that would require support in Congress and a revised law.

This is an issue India is currently having with Singapore, Australia, and the EU – but India has already brought up a legal action against the US in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Despite the tough discussions, it seems the Trump-Modi relationship is a tentatively good one. Ms Madan said India knows it will not get all the answers it needs on immigration and Afghanistan, but they will likely leave a bit more at ease.

On Mr Trump’s part he said the two countries “agree on most things” and jokes that “by the end of the day we’ll agree on everything. I have a feeling”.