NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said he may travel to India next year, adding that PM Modi “wants” him to visit. “He’s a friend of mine, and we speak… He wants me to go there. We will figure that out. I will go. I will have a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi, he’s a great man. And I’ll be going,” Trump said Thursday in response to a question. Asked if the visit could happen next year, Trump said, “It could be, yeah.” India is due to host the next Quad summit with leaders from Australia, Japan, and US, after the 2024 meeting in Delaware. However, dates are yet to be announced. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in New Delhi declined to comment on the visit. “I will let you know when I have (information),” Jaiswal said.

On trade, Donald Trump claimed progress in talks with India and repeated his assertion that India had reduced oil imports from Russia. “It’s great, going good. He (PM Modi) stopped… Largely, he stopped buying oil from Russia,” he said. Trump had imposed 25% reciprocal tariffs on India and an additional 25% levy on purchases of Russian oil, taking total levy to 50%. India had called the measures “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

Trump also revisited an oft-repeated claim: that he stopped a war between India and Pakistan using tariffs. “Of the eight wars I ended, five or six were ended because of tariffs,” he said. “If you take a look at India and Pakistan, they started to fight – they are two nuclear nations… And I said, ‘Listen, if you guys are going to fight, I’m gonna put tariffs on you.’ Within 24 hours, I settled the war. If I didn’t have tariffs, I wouldn’t have been able to settle that war.” Trump called tariffs a “great national defence.” On May 10, he announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington. He has since repeated that claim more than 60 times.