Modi, Trump Discuss Trade, Energy And Defence

NEW DELHI, Dec 11: As speculation about an imminent trade deal between the two countries gathers steam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump spoke over the phone on Thursday and discussed expanding cooperation in various areas.

A statement said the two leaders reviewed progress in the India-US partnership and discussed expanding cooperation in key areas, including trade, critical technologies, energy, defence and security.

Stressing that both leaders expressed satisfaction at the "strengthening of bilateral cooperation" across sectors, the statement mentioned trade specifically and noted they "underlined the importance of sustaining momentum in shared efforts to enhance bilateral trade".

Both Modi and Trump, the statement said, agreed to work closely to address challenges and advance common interests.

"The leaders also exchanged views on expanding cooperation in critical technologies, energy, defence and security, and other priority areas that are central to the implementation of the India-US COMPACT (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st century)," it said.

Prime Minister Modi also posted about the call on X, terming the conversation "warm and engaging", but did not mention trade.

"Had a very warm and engaging conversation with President Trump. We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," he wrote.

Trump’s new national security strategy: China a threat, India a critical partner, Europe in ‘decline’

WASHINGTON, Dec 7: US President Donald Trump sees China as a threat, backs the US, Australia, India, and Japan’s Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), and wants Europe to stand on its feet, his new National Security Strategy shows.

The 33-page document presents the Trump administration’s foreign policy. The strategy document is typically released once each term to shape the US government’s policy priorities.

The White House quietly released the Trump National Security Strategy Thursday, with scathing words not only for China but also Europe, which the document claims is in ‘civilisational decline’.

On China, the document claims that President Trump “single-handedly reversed more than three decades of mistaken American assumptions about China” after the previous government’s idea to stop China’s integration into global markets and supply chains, which would apparently have encouraged it to adopt a “rules-based international order.” Instead, it argues, China “got rich and powerful” and used its gains strategically, while American elites across four administrations enabled or ignored Beijing’s ambitions.

The strategy document places significant emphasis on deterring conflict over Taiwan, given its centrality to semiconductor production and its control of the Second Island Chain—an area that divides Northeast from Southeast Asia. With one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea annually, the consequences for the US economy would be profound, the document states.

It says that the US administration pledges to preserve military overmatch to deter any attempt to “alter the status quo by force”. It also reiterates America’s longstanding declared policy—no support for any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

With the Indo-Pacific now generating almost half of global GDP (PPP) and poised to dominate the 21st century, the strategy states that the region would remain “among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds”.

US prosperity, it argues, depends on competing successfully there. It highlights Trump’s October 2025 agreements with key Indo-Pacific partners, deepening ties in commerce, technology, culture, and defense. It also reaffirms the commitment of Washington, DC, to a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“Trump is building alliances and strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific that will be the bedrock of future security”, it says.

China, it warns, has adapted to US tariffs by tightening its grip on supply chains, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which are “among the greatest economic battlegrounds of the coming decades”. Beijing’s exports to low-income countries doubled between 2020 and 2024 and are now nearly four times its exports to the United States.

Although China’s direct exports to the US have fallen from four percent to just over two percent of its GDP since 2017, Beijing continues to ship goods into the US market through intermediary nations, including Mexico.

The strategy, therefore, is to “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China”, ensuring reciprocity and reducing strategic vulnerabilities.

The strategy designates India as a critical partner in countering predatory economic practices and maintaining US global leadership.

“We must continue to improve commercial (and other) relations with India to encourage New Delhi to contribute to Indo-Pacific security, including through continued quadrilateral cooperation with Australia, Japan, and the United States (’the Quad’),” the document states.

The document calls for joint efforts with India, Europe, and Asian partners to strengthen positions in the Western Hemisphere and in Africa’s “critical minerals” sector, steering economic ties towards a “managed cooperation tied to strategic alignment”.

One major security challenge highlighted is the potential control of the South China Sea by a competitor, which could allow a hostile power to impose tolls or even close the region’s vital shipping lanes. Preventing this, the document argues, will require expanded US naval investment and coordination with every nation at risk, including India and Japan.

The strategy’s language on Europe is sharp. It warns that within decades, “certain NATO members will become majority non-European” before outlining a US policy that prioritises reestablishing stability in Europe and maintaining strategic stability with Russia.

It focuses on enabling Europe’s operation as aligned sovereign nations, which are responsible for their own defense, encouraging resistance within Europe to its “current trajectory”, and opening European markets to US goods while ensuring fair treatment for American workers.

The document also mentions strengthening central, eastern, and southern European states through commercial ties, along with weapons sales and cultural cooperation, ending the perception of NATO as a “perpetually expanding alliance”, and pushing Europe to counter mercantilist overcapacity, tech theft, cyber espionage, and other hostile economic behaviours.

Trump Calls Moscow Talks 'Very Good Meeting', Says Putin Wants To End War

WASHINGTON, Dec 4: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine war, despite talks between the Russian president and American negotiators ending without a deal.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner negotiated into the early hours with Putin in the Kremlin but reached no breakthrough for a settlement to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that its army's recent battlefield successes in Ukraine had bolstered its position, adding that the two sides failed to find a "compromise" and that Kyiv's ties to NATO remained a key question.

"I thought they had a very good meeting yesterday with President Putin," Trump said.

"What comes out of that meeting? I can't tell you, because it does take two to tango."

Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt Russia's nearly four-year-old invasion, Trump replied: "He would like to end the war. That was their impression."

"Their impression was very strongly that he'd like to make a deal," he added.

Witkoff and Kushner brought an updated version of a US plan to end the war, which included Ukraine ceding parts of the eastern Donbas region and agreeing not to join NATO.

But while the White House had voiced optimism ahead of the Kremlin talks, Moscow said afterward it had found parts of the plan unacceptable.

Russia's advance in eastern Ukraine gathered pace last month and Putin has said in recent days that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims if Kyiv does not surrender it.

Rubio says ‘more work’ required after U.S.-Ukraine talks in Florida

HALLANDALE BEACH (FLORIDA), Dec 1: The United States and Ukraine on Sunday hailed “productive” talks on Washington’s plan to halt Russia’s war with its neighbor, but both sides also cautioned that the high-stakes negotiations were far from over.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that more work was required, and a source in Kyiv’s delegation characterised the discussions as “not easy.”

The talks in Florida come as Kyiv faces mounting military and political pressure, along with the fallout from a domestic corruption scandal.

Washington has put forward a plan to end the nearly four-year conflict and is seeking to finalize it with Moscow and Kyiv’s approval.

The negotiations, which follow talks in Geneva, could set the stage for an upcoming visit to Moscow by President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to discuss Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We had another very productive session, building off Geneva, building off the events of this week,” Rubio told reporters.

“But there’s more work to be done. This is delicate. It’s complicated,” he added.

“There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week when Witkoff travels to Moscow.”

Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also attended the meeting in Hallandale Beach, north of Miami.

Ukraine’s security council secretary Rustem Umerov led Kyiv’s delegation, which also included Andrii Hnatov, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, and presidential adviser Oleksandr Bevz.

Umerov described the Florida talks as “productive and successful.”

Trump administration discusses Venezuela amid military build-up concerns

WASHINGTON, Dec 1: Top United States officials were set to meet at the White House to discuss Venezuela, as the administration of US President Donald Trump continued to defend a controversial double strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

The planned meeting on Monday came as the US military continued to surge assets to the Caribbean. That has sparked concerns over a possible land invasion aimed at toppling the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro even as Trump has sent mixed messages in recent days.

Last week, the US president said that land operations against criminal groups in Venezuela could begin “very soon”, in what would be an escalation of the US military’s months-long strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug smugglers in international waters in the Caribbean.

Days earlier, the US designated the Cartel de los Soles, which officials describe as a drug trafficking cartel led by Maduro, as a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO). Experts have pushed back on the characterisation, saying the “Cartel de los Soles” has traditionally referred to a loose network of corruption within the Venezuelan government.

In a Saturday post on his Truth Social account, Trump said airspace over Venezuela should be considered closed “in its entirety”, in what some observers saw as the final preparations for military action.

But on Sunday, Trump told reporters not to “read anything into” the move.

He added that many observers in Washington have read the threats and asset build-up as an effort to force Maduro to flee the country before any military action is taken. Others have pointed to Trump’s past statements on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, sparking concerns he could pursue a “war for oil”.