Even as the world awaits with bated breath, bourses plunge to new found depths over Trump’s tariff war prospect, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have preempted the probable negative repercussions upon our nation. While the U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledged PM Modi as a better negotiator than even himself, India has smartly leveraged American keenness to sell its F35 fifth generation fighters while securing for itself what may at worst play out as a friendly tariff war. Highly placed sources reveal that the Indian PM’s visit to USA was strategically preceded by NSA Ajit Doval and external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s coordinated foreign tours to France, Russia where possible technology transfer deals were fine tuned in the wake of the two-year delay by USA to despatch two futuristic sixth gen fighter engines through GE. While Trump threatens reciprocal tariffs, Modi’s pre-emptive strike of shopping for the technology elsewhere may dampen American spirits enough to ensure a preferential trade agreement instead being hammered out before the end of the 2025 calendar year. Russia and France are only too ready to offer next gen aviation designs, marine drone technology, joint ventures into space and much more while the USA lobbies hard to register F35 sales to India. Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged Modi’s role leading to the de-escalation of the Ukraine war and also promised to forge better relations between India and China going ahead. This would also hang heavy over Trump were he to launch his tariff tirade against India more specifically. Meanwhile, Iran is on the watchlist for a collective military offensive in the coming days over its nuclearization plans.
