US President Donald Trump, first lady Melania were received by PM Modi at the Ahmedabad airport on Monday.
US President Donald Trump will participate in various programmes including a bilateral meeting with PM Modi, in Delhi today on the second day of his India visit. Discussions on trade deal, signing of two defence deals between India-US worth $3 billion will also be on agenda today. President Trump accompanied by first lady Melania, daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Corey Kushner and his delegation landed in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Trump's India visit: What's on table for today
- US President Trump and first lady Melania will receive a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan on Tuesday (today morning).
- Trump and Melania after the ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan will head towards Raj Ghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.
- This will be followed by delegation-level talks with PM Modi at the Hyderabad House.
- In the afternoon, PM Modi will host lunch for President Donald Trump, the first lady, and US delegation.
- After Modi-Trump bilateral meeting, US President will visit the US embassy where he will conduct meetings with industry representatives.
- In the evening, Trump will meet President Ram Nath Kovind who will host a banquet for the US President.
- US first lady Melania Trump will visit Delhi government school where she will interact with students and witness 'happiness curriculum'.
- Trump will also address a press conference at 5 pm today.
- The US President will depart from India later in the night.
Discussions on trade deal as Modi-Trump meet today
One of the key agendas for Modi-Trump talk today will be discussions on a possible trade deal between India and US. Donald Trump, before commencing his India visit had said that the US is going to have a very big trade deal with India, however, it may not be finalised during his current visit, but yes, a trade deal is on the table.
Trump, however, said that India doesn't treat US very well as far as tariffs on US goods are concerned, so it is very likely that President Trump may raise this issue with Prime Minister Modi.
Another reason that a trade deal between India and US is on the cards is that last year, US took over China in order to become India's biggest trading partner with the bilateral trade between the two countries in 2018-2019 crossing $68 billion. US is also one of the countries with which India has a trade surplus.
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India-US to sign $3 billion defence deals
- India and US will exchange agreements on two defence deals today. The first will be for procuring 24 MH-60R helicopters, worth $2.6 billion, for the Indian Navy. The MH-60 Romeo Seahawk maritime helicopters from US-based Lockheed Martin group are considered as the most capable naval helicopters.
- The second defence deal will be for procuring 6 AH-64E Apache helicopters, worth $800 million, for the Indian Army.
Modi to pitch US for restoring Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for Indian exports
During today's talks with Trump, PM Modi may pitch the US President to restore India's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) for India that will ease on tariffs on Indian exports to the US.
The decision to remove India from Generalized System of Preferences by the Trump administration was taken in June 2019, ending preferential tariffs to $5.6 billion of Indian exports. Trump had said that terminating India's status as GSP was in reaction to the uneven tariffs that were being levied on US products being exported to India.
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