India, US defence deals likely to fructify during Trump's visit, say sources

India and the United States currently share a robust partnership in the defence sector and some deals are likely to fructify during President Donald Trump's first official visit to India next week, sources said on Wednesday.

"There will be a big focus on the Indo-Pacific region during visit of US President to India, the government sources said.

India is set to finalise a long-pending defence deal with the United States during President Donald Trump two-day visit to India from February 24, a senior US official has told ANI.

Trump will arrive in India on his maiden visit, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States Jared Kushner or daughter Ivanka Trump, along with United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Secretary of Energy Dan Brouille.

The US President will reach Gujarat's Ahmedabad around noon on February 24 and will address a huge crowd of more than 100,000 people at an event at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on the lines of the 'Howdy Modi' function that was addressed by the US President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Houston in September last year.

On the same day, Trump will come to New Delhi to attend talks in the evening.

Both countries are separately working on a limited trade agreement ahead of the trip, after earlier imposing tit-for-tat tariffs on each other's imports.

While there have been reports that a trade deal appears unlikely, an official conveyed that the leaders are "likely to discuss and possibly finalize not a complete but maybe a 'part' of a bilateral trade deal" during the visit.