PM Modi US Visit: US To Sell F-35 Fighter Jets To India, Says Trump; Approves Extradition Of Tahawwur Rana

US President Donald Trump announced plans to firm up "some wonderful trade deals" for India and the US as he hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wide-ranging talks focussing on charting a new pathway for broadening the bilateral partnership, including in the areas of defence, energy, and critical technology.

PM Modi began his address by saying,"I am delighted to see you back at White House."

He told Trump, "Together we will march towards progress and prosperity of our two nations."

"You made immense contribution in strengthening India-US ties. I believe that in your 2nd term, we will work with more speed," he added.

"I firmly believe with Trump during next four years in his 2nd term, we will work with twice the speed that we did in his 1st term."

US President Donald Trump stated, "It's a great honour to have PM Modi; he is a great friend of mine for a long time."

He said, "We have some very big things to talk about; they (India) are going to be purchasing a lot of our oil and gas."

"We are going to talk about trade; we are going to talk about many things," he added.

Trump promised, "We are going to make some wonderful trade deals for India and for US."

"There is a special bond between the US and India -- world's oldest and largest democracies," he said.

The US president also said that both sides have decided to expand the overall defence partnership.

"Starting this year, we will be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars," Trump said.

"We are also paving the way to ultimately provide India with F-35 stealth fighters," he added. The F35 jets are known as the most lethal, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world.

US President Donald Trump has announced that his administration has approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian probe agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India".

Referring to Rana's extraditon, Trump said, "I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the very evil people of the world."

"He is going to be going back to India to face justice," Trump said. "We're giving him back to India immediately" and more such extraditions could follow as we have quite a few requests (from New Delhi)," he added.

Rana, currently detained at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles, is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the terror attack.

Prime Minister Modi and President Trump answered questions on the Russia-Ukraine conflict during their joint press conference.

"I support Donald Trump's efforts towards finding a possible solution to end the war. The world somehow feels India has been neutral during the war. But I would like to reiterate that India has not been neutral. In fact, India has been on the side of peace," Modi said.

"When I met President Putin, I had even said that 'this is not the era for war'. I had also said that solutions cannot be found on the battlefield. They can only come when all parties sit at the table for dialogue," he said.

PM Modi at the end of his talks with President Trump, in a post on X called for 'mega partnership' between India and US.

He wrote, "President Trump often talks about MAGA. In India, we are working towards a Viksit Bharat, which in American context translates into MIGA. And together, the India-USA have a MEGA partnership for prosperity!"

In an ambitious move, India and the US agreed to conclude the first phase of a mutually beneficial ambitious trade pact by this year and set a target of USD 500 billion in annual bilateral trade by 2030 even as President Donald Trump asserted that Washington will not spare New Delhi from reciprocal tariffs.

Issues relating to trade and tariffs figured extensively in a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump that took place hours after the US President announced a new reciprocal tariff policy for all the trading partners of the US.

At a joint media briefing with Modi, Trump announced that he and Modi agreed on a deal that would facilitate India to import more US oil and gas to bring down Washington's trade deficit with New Delhi.

The bilateral trade between India and the US was around USD 130 billion last year and the US trade deficit stands at around USD 45 billion at present.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has departed for India after concluding his visit to the US during which he held high-level bilateral talks with President Donald Trump on a wide range of subjects, including trade and technology, defence and security, energy and people-to-people ties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted the need to fight against the “ecosystem” of human trafficking that lures people from ordinary families with big dreams and promises and brought to other countries as illegal immigrants.

This is not a question about India only but is a global issue, PM Modi said on the issue of illegal immigration during a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump in the White House here on Thursday.

He said, “We are of the opinion that anybody who enters and lives in another country illegally, they have absolutely no legal right or authority to live in that country.”

Modi added that as far as India and the US are concerned, “we have always said that those who are verified Indian citizens and who are living in the US illegally, India is prepared to take them back.”

“However, for us, the issue doesn't stop there. These are children of very ordinary families, and they are lured by big dreams and promises,” he said, adding that a lot of them are being led astray and misguided by the human traffickers.

“That is why we must fight against the whole human trafficking ecosystem,” Modi said adding that it is the endeavour, and should remain so, of both the US and India that together we have to uproot and destroy this entire ecosystem so that human trafficking is ended and removed.