NEW DELHI -- President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India had made progress toward what he hopes will be a landmark trade agreement between the two economic giants. But there was no breakthrough to announce after formal talks on the second and final day of the president's visit.
Trump was winding up a 36-hour visit to the subcontinent in which he was showered with praise at a mega rally in Ahmedabad, toured the Taj Mahal, and held talks with Modi. Cities were plastered with billboards heralding Trump's arrival, his travel routes were lined with crowds, and costumed dancers and musicians entertained him at every turn.
While Trump had said before departing the United States that "we may make a tremendous deal there," the two sides appeared far apart on major points of a trade pact.
"Our teams have made tremendous progress on a comprehensive trade agreement, and I'm optimistic we can reach a deal that will be of great importance to both countries," Trump told reporters without elaborating.
While Trump predicted that a successful deal is in the offing, he gave no specific deadline. The United States had once hoped to have the agreement ready in September, when Modi visited the United States.
[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/226modi/]Trump said Tuesday that the pact would probably wait until the end of this year, meaning after the U.S. presidential election.
Modi said he and Trump had talked trade and had agreed "to take it forward and give it legal shape."
"We have also agreed to initiate discussions for a bigger deal," Modi said, through an interpreter. "We are confident that this will be a good result that will be in our mutual interest."
The two leaders appeared before reporters in the garden of Hyderabad House, the iconic building typically used to host foreign leaders, and spoke in front of a backdrop of flags, flowers and fountains.
Speaking at a news conference a few hours later, Trump said India maintained unfairly high tariffs on American goods, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
"We're being charged large amounts of tariffs, and they can't do that," Trump said. "I want reciprocal. The United States has to be treated fairly."
The two countries have been engaged in a trade standoff since Trump imposed tariffs on Indian steel and aluminum exports. India responded with higher penalties on U.S. agricultural goods and restrictions on medical devices, prompting the U.S. to strip India of its decades-old trade preferences.
He did gently urge Modi's government to respect freedom on the internet, which the Indian government has shut down repeatedly. Talking about the need for secure 5G wireless, the president added that it should be "a tool for freedom, progress, prosperity, not to do anything where it could be even conceived as a conduit for suppression and censorship."
A trade deal with India has been a priority for two years for Trump, but the two sides have been divided over farm products, medical devices, digital trade and new tariffs. Trump has complained that India treats the United States unfairly and called Modi a "tough negotiator."
CAPITAL CLASHES DEADLY
Trump and Modi celebrated a series of modest agreements that were set before the visit, including a $3 billion arms purchase and a letter of cooperation between Exxon Mobil and India's energy sector. They agreed to create a joint counternarcotics working group to reduce opioid abuse.
"We think we're at a point where our relationship is so special with India, it has never been as good as it is now," Trump said. "We feel very strongly about each other, and we have done something that is very unique."
"We've had a couple of really great days in India," Trump said Tuesday. "Prime Minister Modi is a terrific man, he's a terrific leader and we have a lot of things going in terms of products being purchased by India."
As the two leaders spoke to journalists, smoke was rising into the sky in a different part of New Delhi, where Hindu and Muslim mobs were battling each other in another day of violence over a new citizenship law, backed by Modi, which eases the way for migrants of all South Asian faiths other than Islam. At least 13 people were killed, including a police officer, in the clashes in the capital city during Trump's visit.
Modi, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has insisted that the citizenship law aims to help persecuted religious minorities in three nearby countries. But critics say it is unconstitutional and discriminates against India's Muslim minority.
Asked about the protests during a news conference before his departure, Trump said he had raised the issue of religious freedom with Modi and that the prime minister was "incredible" on the subject.
"He wants people to have religious freedom," said Trump. The president himself proposed temporarily barring all Muslims from entering the U.S. during his 2016 campaign and successfully implemented a travel ban on travelers from certain majority-Muslim countries, although not all of them. Trump spoke at length during Monday's rally about the threat posed by "radical Islamic terrorism" and his administration's efforts to defeat it.
The U.S. State Department has repeatedly expressed concerns about the crackdown in Muslim-majority Kashmir after Modi revoked its autonomy. The citizenship law along with India's other actions have drawn bipartisan criticism in Congress, but Trump was cautious.
"I don't want to discuss that," he said when asked for his opinion of the law. "I want to leave that to India, and hopefully they're going to make the right decision for the people."
The two leaders took no questions at their joint appearance before the news media. Although Modi has taken questions from reporters while overseas next to other world leaders, he is the first prime minister in recent memory to not have held any news conferences in India.
PALACE WELCOME
Modi treated Trump to a rally of 125,000 people at a giant cricket stadium in Ahmadabad on Monday and welcomed him to the presidential palace Tuesday with the roar of guns and an honor guard of red-uniformed soldiers on horseback.
Trump was cheerful in most of his public appearances and moved by the more solemn occasions such as a wreath-laying Tuesday in remembrance of Indian independence leader Mohandas [Mahatma] Gandhi.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump lofted handfuls of flower petals above the memorial.
"This is not from me, this is from just about everybody that saw, they saw that in the history of India which has a long history and a brilliant history in so many different ways, there's never been a reception given to somebody like was given" to him, Trump said. "And I would like to say for the United States of America that nobody else that came here got the kind of reception we have," Trump said, touting the size of crowds that turned out to see him in Ahmedabad and New Delhi.
Trump is the fourth consecutive U.S. president to visit India while in office.
"It was a great compliment to our country" to be received so warmly, Trump said.
Trump ended his visit with a state banquet at the presidential palace in New Delhi that featured a menu with American-friendly twists on traditional Indian dishes before boarding his flight back to the U.S.
Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker and Michael Crowley of The New York Times; by Jonathan Lemire, Jill Colvin, Deb Riechmann, Darlene Superville and Sheikh Saaliq of The Associated Press; and by Anne Gearan, Joanna Slater, Seung Min Kim and Niha Masih of The Washington Post.
A Section on 02/26/2020