America Vice President JD Vance Kicks Off 4-Day Visit To India

The Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance, has arrived in India for a four-day visit.

He started his visit to the Asian nation on Monsay. Whilst in India, Vance will
will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The visit comes as New Delhi takes urgent steps to avoid steep US tariffs with an early trade deal and boost ties with the President Trump administration.

The discussions between the US Vice President and Prime Minister Modi will cover the first day of Vance’s largely personal visit to the country with his family, which includes visiting the Taj Mahal and attending a wedding in the city of Jaipur.

Vance’s wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Vance landed at New Delhi’s Palam airport on Monday following a visit to Rome, where he held a private meeting with Pope Francis on Easter Sunday.

Modi and Vance are expected to review progress made on the bilateral agenda outlined in February when the Indian leader met President Donald Trump in Washington. It includes “fairness” in their two-way trade and growing their defence partnership.

The Indian prime minister was one of the first world leaders to meet Trump after he took office, and Reuters has reported that his government is open to cutting tariffs on more than half of its imports from the US which were worth a total $41.8 billion in 2024, as part of a trade deal.

However, the US president has continued to call India a “tariff abuser” and “tariff king”.

“We are very positive that the visit will give a further boost to our bilateral ties,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Thursday, speaking about Vance’s engagements in India.

The US is India’s largest trading partner and their two-way bilateral trade reached $129 billion in 2024, with a $45.7 billion surplus in favour of India, US government trade data show.

Officials in New Delhi are expecting to clinch a trade deal with the US within the 90-day pause on tariff hikes announced by Trump on April 9 for major trading partners, including Delhi.

Vance’s tour in India is also seen as laying the ground for Trump’s visit to the country later in the year for the summit of leaders of the Quad grouping that includes India, Australia, Japan and the US.

Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in Delhi, said the timing of Vance’s visit was critical in the backdrop of trade talks.

“The fact that the US-China tensions are ramping up, and Vance in particular seems to have taken a very high-profile role in American diplomacy, also means that the visit assumes an added layer of significance,” according to him.