In the first confirmation of the Quad leaders’ summit, which was to be hosted by India this year, being pushed to 2026, US President Donald Trump has said he could travel to the country next year.
Responding to questions at the Oval Office, Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “wants” him to visit. He called Modi a “great man” and a friend. “He’s a friend of mine, and we speak… He wants me to go there. We’ll figure that out. I’ll go. I will have a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi, he’s a great man. And I’ll be going,” Trump said.
Asked if he is planning to go to India next year, he said, “It could be, yes.”
In New Delhi, responding to questions on Trump’s visit to India, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “I do not have anything on this to share. I will let you know when I have.”
After Modi’s visit to the White House this February, thetwo sides had agreed to hold the Quad leaders’ summit in India later in the year.
But ties dived after Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent over its purchase of Russian oil, and bilateral talks for a trade deal were also derailed. Now, the trade negotiations have revived and teams are working overtime to bridge the gap.
New Delhi feels that the trade deal will be key to resolving the issue of tariffs since India has also been reducing oil imports from Russia.
New Delhi believes that this trade deal will ultimately smoothen the path for India to host the US President, and the Quad summit with leaders from Japan and Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had said they were looking at the “first quarter of next year”, but the Indian side has not yet committed to any such timeframe.
Sources said if the trade deal is sealed later this year or early next year, then the scheduling of the US President’s visit can be planned.
The issue of Trump claiming to have brokered the India-Pakistan ceasefire this May is still a sore point. New Delhi maintains it was negotiated bilaterally between Indian and Pakistani military officers. It has also stopped issuing rebuttals to Trump’s statements.
On Thursday, Trump again claimed that India had stopped buying oil from Russia. “It’s great, going good. He (Modi) stopped… Largely he stopped buying oil from Russia,” he said, responding to a question on talks with Modi and the trade discussions.
Trump also reiterated his claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan in May using trade.
“Of the eight wars I ended, I would say five or six ended because of tariffs. I’ll give you an example. If you take a look at India and Pakistan, they started to fight, they are two nuclear nations… They were shooting each other. Eight planes were shot down. It was seven. Now it is eight, because the one that was sort of shot down is now abandoned. Eight planes were shot down,” he said.
“And I said, ‘Listen, if you guys are going to fight, I’m gonna put tariffs on you’. And they both went, you know, they were not happy about that. And within 24 hours, I settled the war. If I didn’t have tariffs, I wouldn’t have been able to settle that war,” he said, adding that tariffs were a “great national defence”.
