Vance arrives in India as Trump’s trade war hangs over visit

JD Vance landed in New Delhi on Monday, kicking off a four-day visit to India that carries both personal and political significance for the vice president, while taking place against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s global trade war. 

Vance’s trip comes as the U.S. is threatening to increase the 10% tariffs on Indian exports to 26% if no deal is reached by the end of the 90-day pause Trump put in place earlier this month.

Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, were greeted at the runway in the Indian capital by Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, a close partner to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The vice president was given a gun salute and a performance of the U.S. national anthem by a military band, as he watched under a red canopy shielding him from the New Delhi sun. 

Modi is slated to host Vance for a bilateral meeting, the White House said. The talks are consequential for the Indian leader, who has sought to position his country as a leader of the Global South — a group of emerging economies — in hopes of gaining influence on the world stage.

Trump administration officials have named India as one of several countries the U.S. is prioritizing negotiations with during the 90-day pause on higher duties that stretches until July. Vance’s visit comes as hopes are running high in New Delhi that the country can secure a quick deal and a reprieve from weightier levies, while the 10% baseline tariff is in place. 

Separately, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also attend the International Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, and is expected to discuss trade with senior U.S. officials while there. 

Modi is also hoping to lure investment from White House adviser Elon Musk. The Tesla chief executive indicated he’d visit India later this year after speaking last week with Modi, signaling potential progress in the electric-car maker’s long-pending push into the world’s most populous country.

Softer Diplomacy

Vance’s visit will also include a bit of softer diplomacy that has yet to be exerted by the Trump administration, with Vance and his young family set to make stops at cultural sites in Jaipur and Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. 

Interest in the Vance family within India already runs high. Vance’s wife is the first Indian-American second lady. Indian media outlets have focused attention on her in the lead-up to the visit, with some running lengthy accounts of her family heritage that traces to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. 

The Vance family visit is likely to showcase the importance of India-US ties at a time when the U.S. is embracing a more assertive stance on the world stage, said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“There is a feeling of pride in India of the Indian-American diaspora,” Vaishnav said. “There will be a feeling of homecoming.” 

He added that the visit could also serve to soften the image of the vice president, who has played the attack dog role in chastising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office, criticizing European allies at the Munich Security Conference and referring to Chinese manufacturing workers as “peasants.”

The attention paid to Usha Vance is similar to that given to former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also Indian-American and received widespread attention in India, particularly in her ancestral village in Tamil Nadu. She did not visit the country during the four years of her vice presidency.

Trade Ties

The U.S. has long sought to cultivate a deeper partnership with India, in large part as a bulwark against China. India, for its part, has sought greater U.S. investment and deeper cooperation in technology-sharing and defense. 

India’s close ties to Russia caused tension with the U.S. under President Joe Biden over Modi’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and India’s continued purchasing of Russian oil despite allies placing sanctions on the country following its invasion of Ukraine.

Despite Trump’s high proposed duties on India, Trump and Modi have long enjoyed warm ties, and the Indian leader has cast his country as a cooperative partner when it comes to key aspects of Trump’s policy platform. 

Months before Trump announced the reciprocal duties, India moved quickly to slash its own levies on American products, including Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson Inc. motorcycles. Those efforts were aimed at shaking off India’s reputation as the “tariff king,” a label Trump has embraced to describe the country’s protectionist policies that he says hurt American businesses.  

Following the Trump-Modi summit meeting in February, India agreed to buy more American goods, including crude oil, liquefied natural gas and high-tech weapons platforms, in order to chip away at its $47.7 billion trade surplus with the U.S. Modi has also embraced Trump’s efforts to deport undocumented migrants, accepting plane-loads of its own citizens from the U.S. in recent months. 

During a visit by Modi to the White House in February, the two leaders said they planned to conclude the first tranche of a bilateral trade by the fall. 

“The mindset, and this comes from the prime minister on down, is we need to make a deal” with the Trump administration, said Vaishnav. “We need to make a deal because the rest of the bilateral relationship, and all that it entails, can only be unlocked once a deal is in place.” 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com