PM Modi - JD Vance Meeting In Delhi: The Optics Of Talks

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed US Vice President JD Vance, his wife Second Lady Usha Vance and their three children to his official residence Monday evening. Vance is on a personal visit to India and his talks with the Indian Prime Minister before dinner is the only official engagement that the visitor had in Delhi. There is a family wedding in Jaipur.

The optics of the visit are excellent, with the Prime Minister interacting with the three young children and showing the family around the grounds. However neither optics nor personal chemistry between leaders matters when it comes to national interests of countries.

Despite the excellent personal rapport between Trump and Prime Minister Modi and the warmth with which Vance and his family were received by the Indian leader, negotiations for the bilateral trade pact that is now worked out will be tough as both nations try to extract the best deal.

President Donald Trump has unleashed a tariff war on the world and countries are grappling with working out new trade agreements with Washington, in the light of the President’s views that the US can no longer be taken for a ride by the rest of the world. The fact that America has grown rich despite the low tariffs it imposes on imports from other countries and had earned tremendous goodwill for this across the world is of little consequence to Trump.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the first four world leaders who travelled to Washington soon after Trump was sworn in and India

got a leg-up in starting negotiations for a trade deal immediately. The process is on and both sides are hoping to come up with the first part of the agreement by autumn.

There have been a flurry of visits from India to Washington to work out a trade agreement. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal was there earlier, finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman is currently in Washington. She has meetings with the World Bank and IMF, but will also meet up with Trump administration officials. A commerce ministry team is heading to Washington on Wednesday for trade talks. The nitty-gritty of the negotiations are not know but the trade pace came up during the talks between Modi and Vance. In a statement released after the meeting India noted.

"They welcomed the significant progress in the negotiations for a mutually beneficial India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement focused on the welfare of the people of the two countries. Likewise, they noted continued efforts towards enhancing cooperation in energy, defence, strategic technologies and other areas."

Vance must have urged India to buy more oil and military equipment from the US, while New Delhi must have pushed for getting strategic technologies from America. The US has a trade deficit of $45. 6 billion with India, and wants New Delhi to spend more on American products. Vance and the officials from Pentagon and the State Department must have pushed India to go in for more American built defence hardware. Delhi continues to purchase much of its defence equipment from Russia, though in the last two decades India has diversified its purchases.

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The two leaders exchange views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest, including Ukraine. The situation in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the US-Iran talks were all touched on. The Prime Minister conveyed his greetings to President Trump and said he looked forward to welcoming him later in the year. The Quad summit will be held in India this time.

Earlier in the day the Vance’s visited the Akshardham temple, shopped in Janpath’s Cottage emporium pick up handloom, brass and wooden items. Cottage emporium is must-stop for foreigners visiting Delhi and America’s second family was no exception. Tomorrow the Vance’s will be in Jaipur where the Vice President is expected to give a talk.