NEW DELHI, Jan 26: The US President Donald Trump wished India as it celebrated its 77th Republic Day on Monday with a post on social media that had a black and white photo of him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“On behalf of the people of the United States, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the government and people of India as you celebrate your 77th Republic Day,” Trump said. “The United States and India share a historic bond as the world’s oldest and largest democracies,” the US President, whose policy of imposing steep tariffs had drawn criticism from India, said in a post on X shared by the American embassy in India.
The US embassy posted Trump’s message at 2.14 pm after the Republic Day parade in Delhi’s Kartavya Path ended. India had hosted as chief guests several top leaders of Europe – a continent that had been pushing back against Trump’s strong signals to take Greenland.
PM Modi said India was privileged to host European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the chief guests at the Republic Day Parade. “Their presence underscores the growing strength of the India-European Union partnership and our commitment to shared values,” he said. “The visit will add momentum to the deepening engagement and cooperation between India and Europe across diverse sectors,” PM Modi said, amid a buzz that a big free-trade agreement (FTA) between India and the EU would be announced soon.
In recent years, India has been using American military hardware in a larger mix than it used to decades ago. US-origin transport aircraft C-130J and Apache attack helicopters were among the aerial platforms that participated in today’s flypast. In general trade, however, India and the US saw a major downturn after Trump announced a whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods, including a 25 per cent punitive levy over Russian oil purchases.
Both sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations last year to firm up the proposed bilateral trade deal. However, it could not be sealed yet, largely in view of Washington’s demands to open up India’s farm and dairy sectors. Apart from the tariff issue, the relations came under strain on a number of other issues that included Trump’s claim of ending the India-Pakistan conflict following Operation Sindoor in May last year and Washington’s new immigration policy.
(Manas Dasgupta)