Trump says US will boost weapons sales to India, including F-35 jets
US President Donald Trump plans to significantly increase weapons sales to India in 2025, including the supersonic F-35 fighter jets, following a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi met with Trump in Washington on Thursday where the pair discussed everything from trade to immigration, and security was high on the agenda, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
“Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars,” Trump told a joint news conference with Modi.
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” he said.
The US president said the two countries would work together on security issues, including “the threat of radical Islamic terrorism”, and a trade deal that will see India import more US oil and gas to shrink the US trade deficit with India.
Modi is only the fourth world leader to visit Trump since his inauguration, but the pair had developed a close relationship during Trump’s first term in office. Those ties may have helped the leaders strike the large defence deal.
India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri later said the F-35 stealth fighter deal was a proposal at this point, with no formal process under way.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment by the Reuters news agency on the deal. Lockheed Martin, which makes the F-35 jet, also did not immediately comment on Trump’s ambitions to sell the jets to India.
US foreign military sales like those of the F-35 are considered government-to-government deals where the Pentagon acts as an intermediary between the defence contractor and a foreign government.
India has agreed to buy more than $20bn of US defence products since 2008.
Last year, India agreed to buy 31 MQ-9B SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian drones after deliberations that lasted more than six years.
According to the US Congressional Research Service, New Delhi is expected to spend more than $200bn over the next decade to modernise its military.
Following his meeting with Modi, Trump praised the Indian prime minister, who he described as a “much tougher negotiator” than himself.
Modi, in turn, described Trump as a “friend” and said he would adopt his own version of the president’s famous “Make America Great Again” tagline in India.
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