Trump says he could visit India next year, praises ties with Modi

US President Donald Trump has said he could travel to India next year, noting that discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and trade talks between the two countries are “going good”.

“It’s great, going good. He (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) stopped… Largely he stopped buying oil from Russia,” Trump said at the Oval Office when asked about his talks with Modi and trade discussions with New Delhi.

“He’s a friend of mine, and we speak… He wants me to go there. We’ll figure that out. I’ll go. I had a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi, he’s a great man. And I’ll be going,” Trump said.

Recalling his previous visit to India, Trump described Modi as a “great man” and said he enjoyed the earlier trip.

He also referred to his past efforts to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, saying tariffs had played a role in preventing conflict.

“Of the eight wars I ended, I would say five or six were ended because of tariffs. I’ll give you an example. If you take a look at India and Pakistan, they started to fight, they are two nuclear nations… They were shooting each other. Eight planes were shot down. It was seven. Now it is eight, because the one that was sort of shot down is now abandoned. Eight planes were shot down,” Trump said.

“And I said, ‘Listen, if you guys are going to fight, I’m gonna put tariffs on you’. And they both went, you know, they were not happy about that. And within 24 hours, I settled the war. If I didn’t have tariffs, I wouldn’t have been able to settle that war,” he added.

The President described tariffs as a “great national defence” and said they had helped him prevent several conflicts during his tenure.

(With inputs from news agencies)