After meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, President Trump said India will increase purchases of American oil and military hardware, and India will win the purchase of advanced F-35 fighter jets.
“We're going to increase military sales to India by hundreds of millions of dollars, and we're also opening ways to ultimately offer the F-35 stealth fighter to India,” Trump said. I said At a joint press conference with Modi.
Trump also said the US will become a “large oil and gas supplier” under a new agreement that will help reduce the US trade deficit with India. The president said he hopes the US will ultimately become India's top supplier.
The US was India's fifth largest oil supplier last year and was second to provide liquefied natural gas (LNG) after Qatar.
“I think we purchased about $15 billion in US energy production last year. India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Mithri said that this figure could reach up to $25 billion after the Trump Modi meeting. There is plenty of it.”
“Today's discussions focused quite heavily on the possibility of more energy purchases, and the possibility that these increased energy purchases will also contribute to affecting the deficit between the two countries is entirely true. “It's possible,” Misri said.
India's oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that deeper energy cooperation is “widely expected” in ongoing consultations between the US and India. He said Indian oil and gas companies will increase their purchases from the US as India's demand, particularly LNG demand, rises.
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Indian refinery sauce I said Indian Express There are two major obstacles to dramatically increase US purchases, including the high cost of shipping oil from the US to India, and the incompatibility of some grades of Indian fuel needs and US crude oil . At the moment, India's refinery sector is directed at processing crude oil from West Asia and Russia, but industry sources said it is possible to adjust equipment to process American crude oil.
“Higher cargo is also a factor in importing LNG from the US, but it's not as much of a concern as with crude oil. This is because American gas itself is usually from other major suppliers like Qatar. That's because it's priced at a huge discount.” Indian Express It's attracting attention.
Regarding military purchases discussed by Trump and Modi, Foreign Secretary Mithri I said New Delhi has an intensive process for military acquisitions that take a little longer to complete, particularly with regard to equipment that has advanced as the F-35 fighter jets, reporter. It took six years for the documents to be cleared for India purchase Of the 31 Seaguardians and Skyguardians in 2024.
“I don't think that process has yet to be started when it comes to India's acquisition of advanced aviation platforms. This is currently in the proposal phase,” Misri said.
It's long for India I was dependent In Russia, most of the purchase of arms dates back to the Soviet era (and a bit of Indian bitterness to US support for rival Pakistan in the 1970s). Even after Russia alienated much of the international community by invading Ukraine, New Delhi defended solid diplomacy, economic and military ties with Moscow.
However, the throw through Russia's Ukraine left fewer weapons to sell it, creating an opportunity for American suppliers to seize a larger share of India's defence budget. President Trump is Very persistent India will need to migrate from Russian military hardware and buy more weapons from the US.
