On February 24, 2020, the US President Donald Trump visited India. He was accompanied by his wife, the first lady, Melania Trump, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Along side his visit, India and US signed defence deals worth 3 billion USD.

The President was welcomed by PM Modi in a traditional way at Ahmedabad airport. Mr Trump later visited Sabarmati Ashram and Taj Mahal. The leaders then addressed a large gathering at Motera stadium. India celebrated the visit of the US President by naming the event as “Namaste Trump”.

We can with no doubt say that the visit of US President(Mr.Trump) to India is both beneficial to Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Donald Trump as both of them are seriously criticised for their radical steps in relation with religious matters in India and heavy tariffs and foreign policy in US.

DEALS SIGNED :

1.India and US will sign two defence deals for helicopters. Around 24 MH-60R helicopters are to be signed for Indian Navy and six AH-64E helicopters are to be signed for Apache helicopters.

The defence relation between India and US began in 2005. The countries signed a framework to build a strategic defence cooperation between them. In 2012, the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) was launched. The DTTI implements Next Generation Protective Ensembles for Chem-bio protection. In 2015, a strategic vision for Asia Pacific (the now Indo Pacific) and the Indian Ocean Region was signed.

2.The Memorandum of Understandings were signed in the field of oil and health. In the field of health, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration signed agreements over the safety of medical products.

It is essential to be on good equations with the USFDA and also abide by its regulations. This is because, the pharmaceutical exports to USA require USFDA certification. And US is the top export destination of Pharmaceuticals for India. In 2018-19, around 5820 million USD worth pharmaceuticals were exported to US from India.

IMPORTANCE OF TRUMP’S VISIT @ INDIA-US TIES :

The visit of US president to India can considered as a very important one for India-US ties both economically and politically.The following are some of the significances of Trump’s visit. They are :

1.With nearly 50000 population of US being Indians , this visit to India in this case, it’s about convincing Mr Trump of the imperative of India, while helping him with the 2.4 million-strong Indian-American voter base in the US.

2.The sharp drop in India’s growth figures (an estimated 5% in 2019-2020), the introduction of increasingly protectionist economic policies, coupled with Mr Trump’s fixation on balancing a trade deficit that currently favours India, has exhausted the scope of the relationship between the two countries.

In these circumstances, it will be incumbent on Mr Modi’s government to woo Mr Trump in a manner that will side-step the US President’s fixation with trade deals, focusing his attention on the strategic potential in the US-India relationship.

3.This is a time of geopolitical disorder. The post-1945 architecture of global politics stands challenged: America’s partial retrenchment from international commitments, evident in the withdrawal from hard-fought climate change agreements to undoing multilateral trade deals; China’s trillion-dollar gamble through the Belt and Road initiative (BRI); the return of Russia; Brexit; and disunity in Europe in dealing with new technologies such as 5G. This requires the world’s two largest and messiest democracies to return a degree of enthusiasm to wider concerns and challenges.

4.This visit will help in strengthening discussions regarding health sector as there is scope and a need for a serious discussion on establishing and strengthening international alliances to prevent and deal with the outbreak of pandemics, especially on the back of the Coronavirus outbreak. Disputes about the use of emerging technologies and the challenges to the cross-border flow of data will require much thinking about the creation of new international structures (such as a partnership of like-minded countries) or the renewal of older ones (through the G20 for instance) to address these new-age concerns.

This visit will help and provides time for the two world leaders to find space for a conversation on how two outsized democracies can truly shape the 21st Century.And hope that someday the ties between India and US will grow to such a level that US will support India’s demand to become a member of United Nations Security Council.