G20 Summit sidelines: PM Modi hold talks with Donald Trump

NEW DELHI: India and the US found a mechanism to tackle trade tensions after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in Osaka on Friday, with the ministers of the two countries expected to meet in the coming weeks to work out the contours of a deal.

The Modi-Trump meeting, held on the margins of the G-20 summit in Japan , seemed to have gone off well after weeks of dissonance over trade, with US raising tariffs on aluminium and steel and revoking India’s beneficiary status under generalised system of preference (GSP), and India responding by raising tariffs on certain categories of imports.

There seems to be progress in tackling trade differences, with Trump telling the Indian side that there will be “big things to announce and big trade deals” and that discussions will lead to positive outcomes.

Briefing the media, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said the Indian side told US clearly that complying with American sanctions on Iran had come at a considerable cost to India. PM Modi told Trump that given its energy, diaspora and economic interests, India wants “peace and stability” in the region. The US president, when questioned, said, “There’s no rush. In the end, hopefully it will work out.”

India has deployed naval vessels in the Gulf of Oman and Straits of Hormuz to escort India-flagged ships. It hopes to negotiate better terms for its energy imports from both US and Saudi Arabia , an issue that figured prominently in the PM’s conversation with Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, later in the day.

Modi’s meeting with Trump was business-like without the customary hug that accompanies his interactions with world leaders. “Productive” and “pragmatic” were the words used to describe its tenor of the meet, the first time the two leaders sat down in a bilateral format after late 2017.

The PM signalled his intent in his opening remarks, listing four issues he wanted to discuss — Iran, bilateral matters including trade, 5G and defence. Modi’s protocol-dictated remarks thanked Trump for his letter, delivered by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. It was the surest sign that the president’s tweet asking India to withdraw tariffs against US goods (“this is unacceptable and the tariffs must be withdrawn!”) had not gone down well with the Indian government. The only consolation was that Trump was equally terse with his closest allies like Japan and EU.

In his opening remarks, Trump sounded much more positive and did not refer to tariffs. Instead, while talking about trade, he said there would be “big things to announce, big trade deals”. “Productive elements will come from this meeting,” he said. Trump congratulated Modi for winning the elections and bringing together different “factions”.

An anodyne White House readout of the meeting said, “The leaders acknowledged the unprecedented breadth and depth of bilateral ties, including economic, trade, energy, defence and security, counter-terrorism and space. The leaders affirmed that, as responsible democracies, a close partnership between the United States and India is central to global peace and stability.”

The conversation on trade was an opportunity for both sides to air their respective concerns. Modi signalled that India has been ready for negotiations for a while, and that though it has taken retaliatory action after removal of GSP concessions, it will look forward to resolve these issues.

The 5G issue was an interesting inclusion in the summit conversation. Gokhale said India, with its billion users, will be crucial. “The way India moves will determine the way the world will go. Therefore, the PM suggested that India and US collaborate on this — India’s market and strengths in technology and design, together with Silicon Valley’s work in 5G technology,” he said.

The foreign secretary said India’s focus was on how to leverage the domestic market and technological development and “our desire to make in India”. During his visit to India, Pompeo had spoken of US concerns over the involvement of Chinese firms like Huawei and the implications for security.

Trump welcomed the comments on 5G and said he would be open to working with India, Gokhale said. This would involve companies developing frontier technologies and US allowing freer movement of Indian technological skills. The US president said tech collaboration was a “big factor in the relationship with India”.

Gokhale asserted that no single issue, whether it is trade or India’s S-400 missile deal with Russia, would “derail” the bilateral relationship, which he described as “deep and broad”.



In Video: PM Modi, US President Trump hold bilateral talks ahead of G-20 Summit