Trump needs to promote similar F-35s to India that Musk was slamming in November

Between 2019 and 2023, India emerged because the world’s largest arms importer — in accordance with information from the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute (SIPRI) — adopted by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Within the coming decade, as per the U.S. Congressional Analysis Service, India is predicted to spend greater than $200 billion on modernising its defence providers.

Given the dimensions of the pie, it was solely to be anticipated {that a} hard-nosed businessman like US President Donald Trump would need a bigger share of it. Certainly, earlier than starting his assembly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump informed reporters in sometimes blunt trend, “We’ll be rising navy gross sales to India by many billions of {dollars}. We’re additionally paving the best way to finally present India with the F-35 stealth fighters.”

The acknowledged official motive behind the “billions of {dollars}” in elevated defence spending, after all, was Trump’s need to scale back the commerce deficit with India. Therefore, the rise in navy gross sales will start this 12 months itself, and ultimately transfer on to F-35 fighter jets, the US President stated yesterday, 13 February.

Modi’s cheerleaders would little doubt see the addition of F-35s to India’s defence arsenal as a significant win, given the minuscule group of countries allowed to purchase them from the US, amongst them Israel, Japan, and NATO states.