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As he prepared to go to Washington this week, India\u2019s prime minister, Narendra Modi, spoke of building on the warm relations he shared with President Trump during his first term in the White House.<\/p>\n
But Mr. Trump can be a fickle friend. So when Mr. Modi meets with him on Thursday, he is expected to bear offerings designed to ease emerging points of friction and preserve growing U.S.-India ties.<\/p>\n
One major focus is trade. Indian officials have said that domestic companies are in talks<\/a> to increase purchases of American energy supplies, particularly liquefied natural gas. The two leaders are also expected to discuss expanded spending on U.S. defense equipment and potentially announce new deals.<\/p>\n In addition, Mr. Modi can point to recent reductions in Indian tariffs on high-end American motorcycles \u2014 namely Harley-Davidsons \u2014 and the prospect of lower duties on goods like bourbon and pecans, which are produced mainly in Republican states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These moves, though largely symbolic in some cases, are intended to placate Mr. Trump\u2019s irritation over the American trade deficit with India and the high import duties that make India a difficult market to enter.<\/p>\n On another big source of tension, illegal immigration, Mr. Modi has already offered concessions. India accounts for the largest group of illegal migrants to the United States outside Latin America. The Indian government has made clear it will cooperate with Mr. Trump\u2019s deportation drive, even as it caused a political headache<\/a> for Mr. Modi last week.<\/p>\n The arrival of 100 shackled and handcuffed Indians on an American military plane, just days before Mr. Modi was to go to Washington, left his government scrambling to play down the episode and contain a domestic backlash.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n India is acutely aware that the trade and immigration issues are a potential double whammy in Mr. Trump\u2019s universe of preoccupations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n So far, while Mr. Trump has threatened even close allies with punitive tariffs over these issues, India has managed to stay out of his cross hairs. If any country can walk the tightrope of Mr. Trump\u2019s hurricane-force return to power, India believes it is the one.<\/p>\n The two countries, the world\u2019s largest democracies, have grown more closely aligned economically and geopolitically as they see a shared threat in an increasingly assertive China.<\/p>\n Mr. Modi will be the fourth world leader to meet with Mr. Trump since he took office about three weeks ago, after a visit to the White House by the Japanese prime minister<\/a> and talks with the Israeli and Jordanian leaders over war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi share much in common. Both are strongman leaders who hold largely transactional views of foreign policy, with a populist\u2019s sense of what plays well with the base.<\/p>\n Even as Mr. Modi has shown a willingness to go along with Mr. Trump\u2019s muscle-flexing, he is working to get what India needs out of the relationship. That is particularly true with Mr. Trump\u2019s push to undo a range of Biden-era legal actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n