NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump has said he may visit India next year, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he described as a “friend,” has invited him to make the trip.
“He’s a friend of mine, and we speak… He wants me to go there. We’ll figure that out. I’ll go. I’ll have a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi — he’s a great man — and I’ll be going,” Trump said on Thursday when asked about the possibility of visiting India.
Asked if the visit could take place next year, he replied, “It could be, yeah.”
India is scheduled to host the next Quad summit — featuring leaders from Australia, Japan, and the United States — following the 2024 meeting in Delaware. However, the dates for the summit are yet to be announced.
In New Delhi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal declined to comment on Trump’s statement, saying, “I will let you know when I have information.”
Trump Claims Progress in Trade Talks, Cites Tariffs as ‘National Defence’
On trade relations, Trump said that discussions with India were making progress and reiterated his claim that New Delhi had reduced oil imports from Russia.
“It’s great, going good. He (PM Modi) stopped… largely, he stopped buying oil from Russia,” Trump asserted.
During his presidency, Trump had imposed 25% reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and an additional 25% levy on purchases of Russian oil — a move India had criticized as “unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable.”
Trump also repeated his long-standing claim that he prevented a war between India and Pakistan through the use of tariffs.
“Of the eight wars I ended, five or six were because of tariffs,” he said. “If you look at India and Pakistan — they’re two nuclear nations — they started to fight, and I said, ‘If you guys are going to fight, I’m going to put tariffs on you.’ Within 24 hours, I settled the war. If I didn’t have tariffs, I couldn’t have done it.”
Calling tariffs a “great national defence,” Trump has repeatedly claimed that his administration brokered a “full and immediate ceasefire” between India and Pakistan on May 10, after what he described as “a long night of talks mediated by Washington.” He has since repeated this assertion more than 60 times.
