Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House was among the topics discussed during a phone discussion with President Donald Trump.
The White House stated in a readout that they also discussed security in the Indo-Pacific, West Asia, and Europe, as well as the Quad (a grouping of India, the United States, Japan, and Australia) during their phone chat on Monday.
According to the summary, Trump emphasised the importance of India purchasing more security equipment from the United States and working towards a fair bilateral trade partnership.
PM Modi had stated in a post on X that he had spoken with “dear friend President @realDonaldTrump @POTUS.”
“Congratulated him on his historic second term,” he continued, adding, “We are committed to a mutually productive and trustworthy collaboration. We shall collaborate for the sake of our people and for world peace, prosperity, and security.”
A few hours later, the White House announced that President Trump and Prime Minister Modi had “a productive call”.
“The two presidents talked about strengthening and deepening collaboration. They also talked about regional problems like security in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe. The President emphasised the need of India expanding its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving towards a more equitable bilateral trade partnership.”
The summary continued, “The leaders discussed plans for Prime Minister Modi to visit the White House, emphasising the strength of our countries’ friendship and strategic ties.” Both leaders emphasised their commitment to strengthening the US-India strategic partnership and the Indo-Pacific Quad collaboration, with India hosting Quad Leaders for the first time later this year.
There have been indications that officials from both nations are contemplating PM Modi’s visit to the White House in February, but no announcements have been made thus far. The Monday reading does imply that a visit is planned, but no details are provided.
The two leaders will meet in person sometime this year, most likely when President Trump visits India for a Quad-country meeting. This was the second phone discussion between the two leaders since President Trump’s re-election; the first occurred shortly after Trump won the election in November 2024.
The two leaders have had a close personal relationship since President Trump’s first term, which ran from 2017 to 2021. The US president co-spoke at the “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston in 2019 before travelling to India in February 2020 for a “Namaste Trump” event in Prime Minister Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented the Prime Minister at Trump’s inauguration last week and attended all related events, including a prayer service attended by the Trump family, cabinet members, and the US President’s tech allies, including Elon Musk of Tesla, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google. Jaishankar also became Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first foreign visitor for a bilateral at the State Department, following a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers, together with Penny Wong of Australia and Iwaya Takeshi of Japan.
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