Indian officials have zeroed in on two of Trump’s top priorities — the economy and immigration — indicating an openness to increased U.S. investment in the country, more imports of American oil and gas, and the return of Indian nationals staying illegally in the United States.
“A preemptive and proactive policy is always better when it comes to Trump,” said Harsh Shringla, India’s ambassador to the United States during Trump’s first term.
Trump has forged close ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has spoken admiringly of the leader’s Hindu-nationalist political movement. Experts say the early conciliatory language from New Delhi reflects the return to a dealmaking era and is aimed at limiting fallout over thornier bilateral issues — including tariffs and India’s expanding wave of aggression against dissidents abroad.
“We have a very good relationship with India,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Monday after his first post-election phone call with Modi, adding that the Indian leader would visit the White House soon, probably in February.
“India’s posture of appeasement is not unique, but it’s very clever,” said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “By making preemptive concessions on relatively minor issues, governments can allow Trump to put quick wins on the board without enduring too much pain themselves.”
Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar was the first Indian official to attend an American presidential inauguration, and he had a seat near the front.
Jaishankar was also among the first to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week and was quick to say at a news conference afterward that India has “always been open” to the return of its citizens living abroad illegally.
Indians are the third-largest group of undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to estimates from the Pew Research Center in 2022. Increasingly, Indian migrants are crossing over from Canada, at a time when Trump has threatened tariffs against Ottawa if it does not lock down its border — part of his administration’s far-reaching anti-immigration agenda.
The U.S. government has previously categorized India as a “recalcitrant” or “uncooperative” country for “systematically” refusing or delaying to repatriate its citizens. Last week, Jaishankar was keen to highlight that New Delhi was taking the issue seriously: “We are firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration,” he told reporters.
The president has already sought to make an example of countries that defy him on the issue — getting into an intense but short-lived feud with his Colombian counterpart Sunday when the country refused to accept flights carrying deportees.
Aboard Air Force One on Monday, Trump said that he and Modi discussed repatriations during their call and that the prime minister “will do what’s right.”
Indian officials have also highlighted their willingness to ramp up energy cooperation, on the heels of a Trump executive order calling for an expansion of American oil and gas drilling. “If you say there is a potent possibility of more purchase of energy between India and the U.S., the answer is yes,” Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri said at an auto industry event two days after Trump’s inauguration.
India frustrated the Biden administration in recent years by increasing its purchases of Russian crude — steeply discounted as a result of Western sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Among Biden’s final acts in office was a more targeted sanctions package aimed at the Russian oil and gas sector, which experts say had already prompted India to explore diversifying its energy supply.
ndia’s small concessions to Trump on energy imports and repatriations are “like pushing on an open door,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute.
New Delhi is also hinting it may be open to larger economic compromises, as Trump threatens a global trade war much broader than anything he attempted in his first term. India exports far more to the United States — its largest trade partner — than it imports into its heavily protected economy.
On the campaign trail, Trump regularly denounced India’s protectionism and criticized the tariffs it imposed on American brands. In his call with Modi, the president emphasized “the importance of … moving toward a fair bilateral trade relationship,” according to the White House readout.
Experts say it’s another area in which New Delhi is eager to signal flexibility.
“If tariff concessions are warranted to preserve our technology and defense partnerships, well, so be it,” Ashok Malik, partner and chair of the India practice at the Asia Group and a former Foreign Ministry official, said in reference to initiatives reached with the Biden administration — including on the development of jet engines and the production of semiconductors.
The perception in New Delhi is that Trump has “much more control this time,” requiring other countries to “take him more seriously,” according to an Indian trade expert with experience in international negotiations, who, like others in this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
On how much India might be willing to relax its economic restrictions to please the new administration, “the intent is clear, but the details are yet to come out,” the former negotiator said. “And the devil lies in the details.”
