US President Donald Trump on Monday urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to buy more security equipment from the United States, in the first phone call between the two leaders of the Republican's second term.
Trump conveyed to Modi the "importance" of India "increasing its purchase of U.S.-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trade relationship," according to a White House statement.
During the conversation, Trump and Modi touched on other issues, such as security in the Indo-Pacific, highlighting their partnership under the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), a forum the two countries share with Australia and Japan.
India, incidentally, will host the Quad leaders' summit this year, the details of which are not yet known.
The two leaders also discussed Modi's plans to visit the White House soon, which Washington said "underscores the strength of friendship and strategic ties between the two nations."
The Indian government, which reported the call ahead of the White House, said Modi conveyed to Trump his commitment to a "partnership of trust and mutual benefit" between the two countries.
India, which competes with China for hegemony in the Indo-Pacific, is one of the emerging powers that founded the BRICS group, which Trump has threatened to increase customs duties on its exports to the United States.
The talks came on the same day that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for an understanding with India during a meeting with his Indian counterpart Vikram Misri after years of border disputes.
Relations between China and India, Asia's two biggest powers, have deteriorated sharply since 2020, when a Chinese military deployment provoked an Indian response that degenerated into a border clash in Ladakh, a Himalayan territory claimed by China. - in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed and 76 others were injured, in addition to an official toll of four Chinese soldiers killed.
Since then, the powers have increased their military presence in the area, worsening hostilities.
The Asian giants have a historic dispute over some regions of the Himalayas, such as Aksai Chin, administered by China and claimed by India, and several parts of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, where the situation is reversed.
