India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi characterizes his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump as akin to one between good friends. That Modi’s meeting with Trump came within three weeks of the start of the latter’s second presidency signals the priority that both leaders attach to the India-U.S. relationship.
In summit-level talks on February 13, the two leaders reviewed the gamut of India-U.S. ties, including the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, security cooperation, defense, trade and economic engagement, technology, energy security, people-to-people linkages, and regional and global issues of concern.
To advance defense ties, Trump and Modi announced that they would renew this year for another 1 years the Framework for the India-U.S. Major Defense Partnership in the 21st Century. First signed in 1995 and renewed every decade since, the agreement is now up for renewal again in 2025.
The Defense Framework Agreement, as it is referred to, sets out the strategic context of the relationship. When it was being renewed for the first time in 2005, it was regarded with deep concern in Beijing. That year, in the so-called Special Representatives dialogue, in which border talks were being pursued by senior Indian and Chinese negotiators, China made its largest-ever border concession to India: It signed a document listing out the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles that would govern an eventual border settlement. It is believed that the India-U.S. Defense Framework Agreement, signed just months earlier, caused a rattled Beijing to make an important concession that strengthened India’s claim on the ownership of Tawang, a strategically vital town in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state that both India and China claim.
U.S. Defense Sales to India
From no defense sales at all at the turn of the millennium, Washington has sold New Delhi close to $20 billion worth of sophisticated defense equipment over the last 20 years, making it India’s largest defense supplier. Modi and Trump welcomed the integration of a large number of U.S.-origin defense items into India’s arsenal, including the C‑130J Super Hercules and C‑17 Globemaster III transport aircraft, P‑8I Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, CH‑47F Chinook heavy lift helicopters, MH‑60R Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters, AH‑64E Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, M777 ultra-light howitzers, and MQ‑9B Predator high altitude, long endurance armed drones, according to a joint statement issued after the Modi-Trump talks.
“The leaders determined that the U.S. would expand defense sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defense industrial cooperation,” it said.
Modi and Trump also announced plans to pursue new acquisitions, with co-production arrangements in India, of Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and Stryker infantry combat Vehicles to rapidly meet India’s defense requirements. India also expects to complete the procurement for six additional P-8I Poseidon aircraft to enhance India’s maritime surveillance reach in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
Recognizing India as a Major Defense Partner with Strategic Trade Authorization-1, or STA-1, authorization and as a key partner in the Quadrilateral partnership, the U.S. and India agreed to review their respective arms transfer regulations, including International Traffic in Arms Regulations. This is expected to streamline defense trade, technology exchange and maintenance, spare supplies and the repair and overhaul in India of U.S.-origin systems.
Modi and Trump also called for the opening of negotiations this year for a Reciprocal Defense Procurement agreement to better align India’s and America’s procurement systems to enable the reciprocal supply of defense goods and services. The two leaders pledged to accelerate defense technology cooperation across space, air defense, missile, maritime, and undersea technologies.
In what could result in the Indian military fleet being equipped with the F-35 Lightning II joint strike aircraft, the U.S. announced a review of its policy on releasing fifth-generation fighters and undersea systems to India.
Were the F-35 to be chosen for the Indian Air Force, Indian planners would get a vital bomber aircraft that could be used to interdict the battlefield in the opening stages of a war, cutting off the rail and road supply lines essential for sustaining and resupplying heavy ammunition expenditure by the adversary’s forward troops. The F-35 stealth bomber would also take out the enemy’s radar network, leaving the border areas isolated and vulnerable to piecemeal destruction by other combat aircraft.
Earlier, the U.S. had indicated its reluctance to supply India the F-35 bomber, if the Indian Air Force insisted on buying the Russian S-400 air defense system. The Pentagon believed that the operational security of the F-35’s radars and early warning systems might be compromised by also having the S-400 operate alongside it. But that apprehension appears to have been abandoned.
Invoking the U.S.-India Roadmap for Defense Industrial Cooperation and the rising importance of autonomous systems, Washington and New Delhi announced a new initiative – the Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance – to scale up industry partnerships and production in the Indo-Pacific.
The leaders also pledged to elevate military cooperation across all domains – air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace – through enhanced training, exercises, and operations incorporating the latest technologies. The leaders welcomed the forthcoming “Tiger Triumph” tri-service exercise, first inaugurated in 2019, to be hosted in India with larger scale and complexity.
Finally, Trump and Modi committed to breaking new ground to support and sustain the overseas deployments of the U.S. and Indian militaries in the Indo-Pacific. The measures would include enhanced logistics and intelligence sharing, and arrangements to improve force mobility for joint humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
Multilateral Cooperation
The two leaders recognized the need to build new plurilateral anchor partnerships in the Western Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific to grow commerce and cooperation across defense, technology, energy and critical minerals. The joint statement anticipated the announcement of new partnership initiatives by the fall of 2025.
India and the U.S. resolved to advance military cooperation in multinational settings to advance global peace and security. The leaders applauded India’s decision to take on a future leadership role in the Combined Maritime Forces naval task force to help secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.
Trump and Modi reaffirmed that a close partnership between the U.S. and India would be central to a free, open, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region. They reiterated that the Quadrilateral partnership is underpinned by the recognition of ASEAN centrality; adherence to international law and good governance; support for safety and freedom of navigation, overflight and other lawful uses of the seas; unimpeded lawful commerce; and advocacy for peaceful resolution of maritime disputes in accordance with international law.
While the Indian Navy participates fully in the Quadrilateral’s political forums and its naval component, the Malabar exercises, there is a clear recognition that India would be on its own in the event of hostilities with China on the Sino-Indian land border. Nor has New Delhi ever indicated a willingness to become a member of regional alliances such as AUKUS, a trilateral alliance that has brought together Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.
Given U.S. support for India’s role as a net security provider in the IOR, the leaders launched the Indian Ocean Strategic Venture forum to advance coordinated investments in economic connectivity and commerce. They welcomed Meta’s announcement of a multi-billion, multi-year investment in an undersea cable project that will begin work this year and ultimately stretch over 50,000 kilometers to connect five continents.
