US Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance will visit India later this month, Politico reported on Wednesday. Sources told the outlet, "Vice President JD Vance will travel to India later this month alongside Second Lady Usha Vance."
While the upcoming trip marks Vance’s second foreign trip as vice president, it will be Usha Vance’s first time visiting her ancestral country (India) as second lady. JD Vance had earlier visited France and Germany last month as the US Vice President
Usha Vance, a Yale graduate lawyer, is the first Indian-origin Second Lady of the United States. Her roots can be traced back to Andhra Pradesh. Her South-Asian descent is due to her Indian immigrant parents, who arrived in America in 1986.
Their upcoming trip to India is likely to happen as US President Donald Trump's tariff threat looms.
Uncertainty over tariffs
Donald Trump recently announced that India had agreed to "cut their tariffs way down". However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government clarified on Tuesday that it has not yet committed to slashing import duties on US products.
India's Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal told a Parliamentary panel on Monday that negotiations are still on and no agreement on trade tariffs has been reached so far between India and the US.
Barthwal said India was in favour of free trade and wanted liberalisation of trade, which will help increase trade between the two countries, sources told news agency PTI. “He told the members that tariff war does not help anyone, including the US, and can lead to a recession,” the sources said.
Sources added that India will sign a "mutually beneficial agreement".
While the United States is a crucial market for India's information technology and services sectors, Washington has made billions of dollars in new military hardware sales to New Delhi in recent years.
Trump's India visit soon?
US President Donald Trump could visit India later this year for a summit of heads of state from the Quad — a four-way grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the White House last month. He was the fourth foreign leader to visit Donald Trump since the latter's inauguration on January 20.
PM Modi had said during his trip, “President Trump often talks about MAGA. In India, we are working towards a Viksit Bharat, which in American context translates into MIGA. And together, the India-USA have a MEGA partnership for prosperity!"
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