US President Donald Trump has said he could visit India next year and noted that talks with India are 'going good'.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump described his relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “great” and said the two leaders remain in regular contact.
“It’s going good. He stopped buying oil from Russia, largely he stopped. He’s a friend of mine, and we speak often. He wants me to go there, we’ll figure that out. I had a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi; he’s a great man. And I’ll be going,” Trump said.
When asked if the visit could take place next year, Trump responded, “It could be, yeah.”
India is scheduled to host the next Quad summit, bringing together leaders from the United States, Japan, Australia, and India in New Delhi following the 2024 meeting held in Wilmington, Delaware.
The exact dates for the 2025 summit have yet to be confirmed.
During his remarks, Trump once again claimed credit for helping defuse tensions between India and Pakistan during his presidency, asserting that trade tariffs played a key role.
"Of the eight wars I ended, I would say five or six were ended because of tariffs. I'll give you an example.
If you take a look at India and Pakistan, they started to fight, they are two nuclear nations. They were shooting each other.
Eight planes were shot down. It was seven. Now it is eight, because the one that was sort of shot down is now abandoned.
Eight planes were shot down. And I said, 'Listen, if you guys are going to fight, I'm gonna put tariffs on you'. And they both went, you know, they were not happy about that.
And within 24 hours, I settled the war. If I didn't have tariffs, I wouldn't have been able to settle that war," Trump said, describing tariffs as a “great national defense.”
(With inputs from PTI)