New Delhi: While India will certainly do its best to ease trade-related tensions with the US after Donald Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff, it will have nothing to do with the purchase of F-35 fighter jets.
The Trump administration had offered the fifth-generation stealth jets to India in February, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington. India had not shown much interest at that time. Many believe that Trump’s aggressive stance, on the economic front, has much to do with exerting pressure on India to do a rethink.
However, if a Bloomberg report is to be believed, Indian officials have told the US that they are not interested in buying the F-35 fighter jets. India’s priority in the defence sector at the moment is on joint development of high-end military equipment, rather than going in for off-the-shelf purchases.
In one of his recent posts, Trump had dropped a hint that the US is unhappy with defence deals between India and Russia. The US had threatened sanctions after India purchased the S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.
To de-escalate tensions with the White House, India is reportedly considering boosting its imports of various American goods. However, this potential move to placate the U.S. on the trade front is being pursued separately from its defence strategy, where New Delhi has taken a firm stance by rejecting the expensive warplanes.
The potential increase in imports, which could include items like natural gas, communication equipment, and gold, is aimed at narrowing India’s trade surplus with the US.
This was bound to happen, defence experts say, with India hoping to start inducting its indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) in less than 10 years. The Indian Air Force (IAF) has already started inducting the Tejas Mk1As and the Tejas Mk2s are expected to be ready by 2028-29.
The situation adds to existing friction between the two nations. Trump had recently posted: “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!”
