PM Modi congratulates: Had a great conversation with his friend President Trump | News from India

Sources said President-elect Trump told Prime Minister Modi during their phone call that he considers him and India a true friend.

Earlier today, as soon as Trump's victory became certain, Modi, in an article on As you build on the successes of your previous term, I look forward to renewing our collaboration to further strengthen the global and comprehensive strategic partnership between India and the United States. Together, let us work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity.

Trump's return comes at a time when India is looking at four years of continuity in the US administration, with a certain amount of uncertainty and unpredictability he brings to the table.

I had a great conversation with my friend, the president @realDonaldTrumpcongratulating him on his spectacular victory. Looking forward to working closely again to further strengthen India-US relations in technology, defense, energy, space and several other sectors.

Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 6, 2024

But Trump's victory did not surprise New Delhi. South Block had predicted that a tight and close contest meant he far outpaced Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.

For New Delhi, Trump's White House 2.0 means another four years of difficult negotiations on trade and immigration, resistance to the Chinese challenge, a very lucid vision of Pakistan's role in terrorism and a reluctance to speak out on India's human rights record.

And it could also at least mean that South Block is hoping that the current US administration's focus on the alleged plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, leader of the banned group Sikhs for Justice, will be reduced.

While we have no doubt that the US legal process will go through the necessary steps, a Trump 2.0 will not be happy to protect pro-Khalistan separatist figures on US soil, a source said.

Southern Bloc sources are aware of the US process and the separation of powers, as well as the Trump team's temptation to use this as leverage to extract concessions on tariffs or something else in return. But one thing is certain: Trump will not support these separatist elements, the sources said.

The officials point to Trump's four years in which India-US relations flourished after two US presidents before him took bilateral ties to a new level. This is the success of Trump 1.0 that Prime Minister Modi referred to in his congratulatory message.

As George W. Bush opened the doors with the historic India-US nuclear deal, virtually marking the beginning of the end of the regime of technology denial, Barack Obama pledged, for the first time, to look forward to a Reformed United Nations Security Council with India as a permanent member.

And then came Trump, under whose leadership the US administration declared China a strategic threat and rival. It was music to the ears of the Indian establishment that had raised the red flag over China's not-so-peaceful rise, and Obama had undertaken a half-hearted initiative, the Pivot.

Trump's vision of China under Xi has brought India and the United States closer than ever. His efforts led to the revival of the Quad in 2017, which Biden elevated to leadership in 2020, and which is expected to grow.

China became the strategic glue of India-US relations, while the convergence of technology, capital and aspiration for employment and education opportunities was the natural binding factor.

Officials who interacted with Trump remember a president who ensured that obstacles to defense cooperation were removed by signing the founding agreements in 2018 and 2020.

The two countries signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) which, along with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (LEMOA) in 2016 (during Obama's term) and the Compatibility Agreement and Communications Security (COMCASA) in 2018, completed a troika of founding pacts for in-depth military cooperation between the two countries.

The strengthening of cooperation mechanisms between the two armies must be considered in the context of an increasingly aggressive China which threatens a large number of countries in its neighborhood and beyond, and which calls into question several established norms and aspects international relations.

Amid the ongoing standoff over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, India and the United States have intensified under-the-radar intelligence and military cooperation to an unprecedented level, especially since June 2020, when Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan Valley.

These conversations facilitated the sharing of information between the security, military and intelligence agencies of the two countries, including the sharing of high-quality satellite images, telephone intercepts and data on Chinese troops and the deployment of weapons along the LAC.

This situation is expected to continue under the Trump administration in the White House.

For New Delhi, this intense engagement between the Modi government and the Trump administration ensured strong US support for India's fight against terrorism. This was evident after the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019, which led to the designation of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 and how Pakistan was included in the Financial Action Task Force. gray list.

While Trump has been highly critical and uncompromising towards Pakistan, New Delhi will now closely monitor his actions given that the US strategic imperative of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan has ended.

What will bother New Delhi are trade and tariff issues, as well as the immigration issue. Trump believes that India is a high-tariff country and wants better tariffs and a more predictable regime for doing business.

The other area of ​​concern and controversy is the movement of skilled Indian professionals to the US under the H1B program. Although Trump has always made immigration a major theme of his campaign, and such issues are regularly raised in the US Congress, this has so far not created any major obstacles for Indians.

Over the past year, the United States has returned approximately 1,100 illegal immigrants from India.

New Delhi has said it does not support illegal immigration from India and has always supported legal migration routes.

But if planeloads of Indians start arriving from the United States, it will pose a challenge domestically.

What Biden has done is to open up the technology partnership in critical and emerging technologies and New Delhi expects Trump to now give a boost to this partnership, and even within the Quad grouping. And this is what Modi alluded to when he spoke about strengthening collaboration, building on the successes of the previous term.