Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the first day of their 4-day visit to India. They were accompanied by the two children which made for a lighter side to the otherwise serious discussions that transpired on bilateral and global issues.
“Pleased to welcome US @VP @JDVance and his family in New Delhi. We reviewed the fast-paced progress following my visit to the US and meeting with President Trump. We are committed to mutually beneficial cooperation, including trade, technology, defence, energy and people-to-people exchanges. India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership will be defining partnership of the 21st Century for a better future of our people and the world,” Modi tweeted posting pictures with the Second Family on X.
The Indian Embassy sent a readout of the meeting noting Modi “fondly” recalled his visit to Washington, D.C. in January and his “fruitful discussions” with President Trump, which “laid down the roadmap for close cooperation between India and the U.S., leveraging the strengths of Make America Great Again (MAGA) and Viksit Bharat 2047.”
The two leaders reviewed and assessed the progress in various areas of bilateral cooperation. They noted continued efforts towards enhancing cooperation in energy, defense, strategic technologies and other areas. They exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest, and called for dialogue and diplomacy as the way forward.
The Prime Minister conveyed his warm greetings to President Trump and said that he looked forward to his visit to India later this year for The Quad meeting.
According to a Reuters report, quoting US official sources, said Vance four-day visit was “largely personal” noting that it included a visit to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur.
The Indian prime minister was one of the first world leaders to meet Trump after he took office, and Reuters has reported that his government is open to cutting tariffs on more than half of its imports from the U.S., which were worth a total $41.8 billion in 2024, as part of a trade deal.
However, the U.S. president has continued to call India a “tariff abuser” and “tariff king” the Reuters report pointed out.
“We are very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters last week on Thursday, April 17, speaking about Vance’s engagements in India.
The U.S. is India’s largest trading partner and their two-way bilateral trade reached $129 billion in 2024, with a $45.7 billion surplus in favor of India, U.S. government trade data quoted by Reuters, show.
Now that President Trump has put a 90-day hold on tariffs, New Delhi is hopeful it cold strike a trade deal with Washington by then.
“The long and short of engaging with the U.S. is not just for this reciprocal tariff-related matter, but in the interest of… our largest trading partner with whom we need to have an agreement,” Sitharaman said in an address to the Indian diaspora in San Francisco, Reuters reported.
Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in Delhi, told Reuters the timing of Vance’s visit was critical in the backdrop of trade talks.
“The fact that the US-China tensions are ramping up, and Vance in particular seems to have taken a very high profile role in American diplomacy, also means that the visit assumes an added layer of significance,” Pant told Reuters.
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