7 hours Ago
United States (US) Vice President JD Vance and Indian-origin Second Lady Usha Vance will visit India this month, American news portal POLITICO reported citing three sources familiar with the matter. It will be JD Vance’s second foreign trip as vice president and Usha Vance’s first visit to India as second lady. Usha Vance’s mother, a molecular biologist, and mechanical engineer father moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh.
In February, JD Vance visited France and Germany, where he criticised European governments over illegal migration, religious freedoms, and overturning elections in a speech at the Munich Security Conference. The POLITICO report on JD Vance’s visit to India comes against the backdrop of trade negotiations between India and the US. US President Donald Trump this month cited high tariffs from countries such as Brazil, India, and China, and said his plan for reciprocal tariffs would come into effect on April 2.
Indian officials hoped for a resolution through trade negotiations. Trump’s comments about reciprocal tariffs in his address to a joint session of the US Congress intensified fears about trade wars and their impact on global economic growth. Union minister Jitin Prasada on Tuesday told Parliament that India and the US will focus on increasing market access for each other, reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, and enhancing supply chain integration.
The comments came days after a Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal-led delegation concluded its US visit as the two sides have been working on a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) hoped to be concluded by the fall of 2025. HT reported India is holding inter-ministerial discussions to lower exceptionally high tariffs on items such as automobiles (motorbikes and cars) for mutual gains. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump on February 13 agreed to negotiate the first part of a “mutually beneficial and multi-sector” BTA by the fall of 2025.
The two decides to set a “bold new goal” for bilateral trade – “Mission 500” – to more than double the bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030..
