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India remains very constantly engaged with the United States to find a mutually beneficial and balanced trade arrangement as early as possible, India's Ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra said. "On trade and tariff...we remain very constantly engaged with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) with the hope to find a mutually beneficial and a balanced trade arrangement as early as possible, Kwatra told PTI in an exclusive interview here. Our effort all along, right through this whole year, the tone for the relationship was set during Prime Minister's visit in early February. We agreed to a very, very significant and substantial outcome document across range of areas. Space was one of them, he said. Kwatra termed India's successful launch of an American communication satellite on Wednesday as a very important and big day for partnership between Washington and New Delhi, saying it caps a series of achievements in 2025 in bilateral space cooperation between the countries. I
US President Donald Trump has signed into law an annual defence policy bill that highlights broadening America's engagement with India, including through the Quad to advance the shared objective of a free and open Indo-Pacific region and address the challenge posed by China. The National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2026, signed into law Thursday, authorises fiscal year appropriations for the Department of War (DoW), the Department of Energy national security programmes, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and other executive departments and agencies. The Act will enable the DoW to carry out my Peace Through Strength agenda, protect the homeland from domestic and foreign threats, and strengthen the defence industrial base, while eliminating funding for wasteful and radical programmes that undermine the warfighting ethos of our Nation's men and women in uniform, Trump said in a statement. The Act outlines sense of ...
India's Ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra has held meetings with senior Democratic lawmakers, discussing cooperation in emerging technologies, defence, and trade as part of efforts to further strengthen bilateral ties. In a social media post on Saturday, Kwatra said he held an engaging conversation with Congressman Ted Lieu, Vice Chair of the House Democrats Caucus, during which they discussed shared priorities on emerging developments in artificial intelligence, defence and security cooperation, trade and investment, and people-to-people exchanges. The envoy said he looked forward to continued collaboration on issues of mutual interest. In another meeting on Friday, Kwatra met Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, Chair of the House Black Caucus, and described her as a "steadfast supporter of strong IndiaUS relations". He said the discussions with Clarke focused on advancing IndiaUS collaboration in the AI space, including data privacy and data security.
The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group". Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC". In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, ...