US Vice-President JD Vance’s first visit to India was marred by the brutal terror attacks in Pahalgam, but his messages of solidarity with India was clear when he chose to continue his family vacation. Though the visit was a “largely private” affair, since Vance’s wife and the Second Lady Usha Chilukuri Vance, is of Indian-origin. The visit provided for a quick review of decisions made during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the US in February this year.
Although the Vance-Modi talks did not yield much apart from an announcement that the terms of reference for the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) being negotiated in Washington had been finalised. They also provided for a chance to discuss US President Donald Trump’s visit to India later this year for the Quad Summit, and plans for Indo-Pacific strategy. Not much clarity is available whether Modi raised India’s concerns over US tariffs and their impact on the global economy, the US crackdown on immigration, as well as the recent revocations of visas issued to hundreds of foreign students, more than half of whom were Indian.
Referring to the raised tariffs, Vance said US and Indian negotiators had finalised “terms of reference” for a bilateral trade agreement that Delhi is urgently seeking, in hopes that it will allow the country to dodge steep tariff increases announced by Trump. India was hit with a 26% “reciprocal” tariff on April 2, before the levies were suspended for 90 days by the Trump administration on April 9, leaving a 10% baseline tariff.
Vance described the US-India partnership as the cornerstone of global progress, warning that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” if the two countries fail to cooperate. In the keynote address of his four-day visit to India, Vance contrasted the country’s “incredible” potential with a “self-loathing” west. “I really believe that the future of the 21st century is going to be determined by the strength of the US-India partnership,” Vance told business leaders, diplomats and government officials in the north-west tourist city of Jaipur.
With three little kids staring into the sun, this was actually the *best* photo we got at the Taj Mahal today 😂 pic.twitter.com/0ipCbkcA3u
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 23, 2025
Upon meeting Modi, he praised the Indian Prime Minister as someone who had “thought deeply about India’s future prosperity and security, not just for the rest of his time in office, but over the next century”. He said, “In India, America has a friend,” he said. “And we seek to strengthen the warm bonds our great nations already share … This is very much a win-win partnership.”
The US is India’s top trading partner. The two countries have set an ambitious goal of doubling their bilateral trade to $500bn by 2030. Though the vice-president gave no details about the contents of the talks, but he said cooperation between the two countries could lead to co-production of military hardware, partnerships in autonomous maritime systems, and investments in undersea cables, pharmaceuticals and data centres. Vance pitched for the US to supply more military equipment to India, including the F-35 stealth fighter. India has relied heavily on Russian-made military equipment and armaments over the past decade, but has slowly been diversifying and buying from the US, France and the UK.
However, at a public address in Jaipur, Vance responded to some of the criticism of the Trump administration’s actions. He said, “Rather than seeking to “start a trade war”, Trump hopes to “rebalance global trade”, outlining the BTA as a “final deal” for “fairness”. He also raised the need for India to drop “non-tariff barriers” that stop US access to the Indian market, mainly to selling agricultural produce and dairy products, a sensitive issue in India.
Vance’s effort during his visit was to underline the importance of statements and demands already made by Trump. His praise for India as a rising power, confident in its national identity and “a sense of infinite possibility”, in stark contrast to the west, which he said was gripped by “self-doubt and even fear of the future” should be seen with a clear message to be read in-between the lines that India matters!
