India & The New World

 

The World After 4th March, 2025 – India Without Worries

20 March, 2025

Deepak Razdan

President Donald Trump’s “trade war” against the whole world has thrown major economies into a spin. From Japan to Canada, the Europe and the United Kingdom, every developed nation today knows its days of economic comfort are uncertain. Stock markets show indices with negative signs, while leaders assure citizens of their countries they are working to meet challenges of trade and commerce, as also defence and security due to the Ukraine-Russia war. The world is estimating how far Mr Trump’s unilateral announcements will impact growth and inflation.

India has so far escaped much of those worries. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was talking to US and European leaders around the days and weeks when the US President was unfolding his world agenda. Mr Trump assumed office on 20th January, 2025 and gave a long address before the Joint Session of the US Congress on 4th March, 2025. In the intervening days, he met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28th February at White House.

Continuing the trend of his high diplomacy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with Mr Trump on 27 January night and congratulated him on his historic second term as the 47th President of the United States of America. Mr Modi then visited the US on 13th February and held wide-ranging talks with the US President. The visit came after his discussions on the evolving world situation with President Emmanuel Macron in France during his 10-12 February tour. A fortnight later, the new President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was in New Delhi and held discussions with Mr Modi on 28 February. There was reiteration of further cementing the India-EU ties.

Irrespective of the high tariff impositions announced on steel and aluminium imports into the US, and the likelihood of more economic restrictions by the Trump Administration by 2nd April, India is already working out a detailed agreement with the US to increase bilateral trade from $ 200 billion to $ 500 billion annually. The story does not end here and there is much more happening in India-US relations.

After meeting Mr Trump, Mr Modi recalled the enthusiasm with which he and the US President worked together in his first term; he said he felt the same enthusiasm, the same energy and the same commitment again on 13th February.

President Trump and Prime Minister Modi launched a new initiative on the day, called the "US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century” – to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation. Under this initiative, they committed to a results-driven agenda with initial outcomes this year to demonstrate the level of trust for a mutually beneficial partnership!

The two leaders resolved to expand trade and investment to make their citizens more prosperous, nations stronger, economies more innovative and supply chains more resilient. They resolved to deepen the US-India trade relationship to promote growth that ensures fairness, national security and job creation. To this end, the leaders set a bold new goal for bilateral trade – "Mission 500” – aiming to more than double total bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. What better news could be than this when everybody is wondering where the world is headed to.

Recognizing that this level of ambition would require new, fair-trade terms, the leaders announced plans to negotiate the first tranche of the mutually beneficial, multi-sector Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), as early as by fall of 2025.

When the world is solving puzzles over defence, the Indian and US leaders announced plans to sign this year a new ten-year Framework for the US-India Major Defence Partnership in the 21st Century.

The two leaders’ joint statement noted the inclusion of major US defence items into India’s inventory and pledged to elevate the military cooperation across all domains – air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace – through enhanced training, exercises, and operations, incorporating the latest technologies. They welcomed the forthcoming "Tiger Triumph” tri-service exercise (first inaugurated in 2019) with larger scale and complexity to be hosted in India.

There were more comforting words on people-to-people contacts and the two leaders noted that the more than 300,000 strong Indian student community contributes over $8 billion annually to the US economy and helped create a number of direct and indirect jobs.

They recognized that the talent flow and movement of students, researchers and employees, had mutually benefited both countries. Recognizing the importance of international academic collaborations in fostering innovation, improving learning outcomes and development of a future-ready workforce, both leaders resolved to strengthen collaborations between the higher education institutions through efforts such as joint/dual degree and twinning programs, establishing joint Centers of Excellence, and setting up of offshore campuses of premier educational institutions of the US in India. This was happy news!

Mr Modi’s visit earlier to France was his sixth and followed President Macron’s visit to India in January 2024 as the Chief Guest for the 75th Republic Day of India. The two leaders’ Joint Statement said they held bilateral discussions on the entire gamut of the exceptionally strong and multifaceted bilateral cooperation and on global and regional matters.

Both leaders went to Marseille where President Macron hosted a private dinner for Prime Minister Modi, reflecting the excellent relationship between the two leaders. They jointly inaugurated India’s Consulate General in Marseille. They also visited the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor facility!

On people-to-people contacts, the two leaders welcomed the successful launch in September 2024 of the International Classes Scheme under which Indian students are taught French in highly in reputed French universities in France during one academic year, before entering their chosen curricula in France. This was aimed at creating conducive conditions to increase student mobility and meeting the target of 30,000 Indian students in France by 2030. In this regard, they welcomed the rising number of Indian students in France, with 2025 figures expected to reach an unprecedented 10,000!

President von der Leyen was on her landmark official visit as she led the European Union College of Commissioners to India on 27-28 February. This is the first visit of the College of Commissioners outside the European continent since the start of their new mandate and also the first such visit in the history of India-EU bilateral ties.

The two leaders agreed to task their teams to pursue negotiations for a balanced, ambitious, and mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the aim of concluding them within the course of the year, recognizing the centrality and importance of growing India-EU trade and economic relations.

The two leaders’ Joint Statement said they had agreed to strengthen people-to-people ties especially in the areas of higher education, research, tourism, culture, sports, and between their youths, and creating an enabling environment for enhancing such exchanges.

Also to promote legal, safe and orderly migration in areas of skilled workforce and professionals in view of India’s growing human capital and taking into account EU member states’ demographic profile and labour market needs! After this, there should be no doubt on Indian talent moving to any part of the world and making money!