By Shakeel Syed

What can one expect when a convicted felon, a.k.a. President Trump and an unindicted co-conspirator, a.k.a. self-proclaimed 56-inch strong chhati (chest) Prime Minister Modi meet to rekindle their Bromance 2.0., a day before Valentine’s Day.

Well for sure they would not be sipping hot chocolate by the fireside and talking about their first crush. Instead, I suspect they would want to prove to the other their passionate love for: nationalism/sectarianism (MAGA vs Hindutva), wealthy friends (Musk vs Ambani), mutual hatred of Muslims, childish claims of who draws bigger crowd and playing amateur theatrics while suppressing and repressing nearly all aspects of a democratic society. 

Courtesy of Modi’s overseas friends of Bharatiya Janata Party in the U.S., Modi accorded an audience to the much-mentioned Trump’s $300 million plus buyer, Elon Musk, at the Blair House – the official guest house across the street from the White House.

One may also recall the “progressive” President of the century, Barack Obama, who set aside the travel ban on Modi & and welcomed him as a State guest. The answer lies not in the bipartisan bromance, but in realpolitik! The U.S. wants India to fight its war of containment against China & India is eating it because it knows it cannot stand against China alone?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived here to hold high-stakes talks with President Donald Trump in the face of concerns in New Delhi over Washington’s new “America First” trade agenda as well as its approach on immigration. 

During Trump’s inauguration as his guest, Modi’s external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar had laid the groundwork for Modi to ask for more H1B visas (higher foreign remittances) and agree to collaborate on taking back working-class, visa-less Indians (lower foreign remittances). The American technology sector however is deeply tied to the H1B force, while MAGA voters would like to see fewer “non-American,” read whites coming in.

Interestingly, Trump trumped Modi as he imposed reciprocal tariffs on the very day of his meeting with Modi. “They are going to be purchasing a lot of our oil and gas,” Trump said, referring to India. “They need it. And we have it.”

Both Modi and Trump, in what would be the first bilateral talks between the two since their reelection, will tussle to reach an agreement on how to address what Trump said are “long-running disparities” in the U.S.-India trade relationship. Trump says the U.S. wants and is entitled to a “certain level playing field.”

Modi is meeting Trump at a time when the Indian element in the U.S. government is seemingly strong. Not only does Vice President JD Vance have an Indian Hindu wife, but there is also Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel on the mark to step in.

Aside from immigration & trade, a sector Trump would surely demand would be India replacing its aging Soviet-era war machine with ‘beautiful’ American equipment. India, as of late 2024, had foreign exchange reserves of more than $700 billion & surely, that is not lost to Trump who loves to market “beautiful” American weapons.

After all the bromance of a convicted felon and an unindicted co-conspirator is not about fireside chat and hot chocolate but hot weapons and causing continued carnage in their respective fiefdoms.

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Shakeel Syed is the Executive Director of the South Asian Network.