India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Mohan Kwatra held a series of meetings with top American technology leaders and discussed perspectives on the trajectory of advanced technologies, including Quantum, and the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Mr. Kwatra held separate meetings on Monday (June 8, 2026) to discuss investment expansion, supply chain resilience, and emerging technologies. He met president and CEO of Walmart and had a conversation on their investments in India. “A productive conversation with Chris Nicholas, president and CEO of @Walmart, on their investments in India, to discuss investment expansion, supply chain resilience, and emerging technologies,” Mr. Kwatra said in a post on X on Tuesday (June 9, 2026).

In June last year, the then leadership of Walmart Inc met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the U.S.-based retail giant’s growing partnership with India. In another meeting, he met the president and CEO of the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP).

“Insightful conversation with @Ylli_Bajraktari, President & CEO of @scsp_ai, ahead of his upcoming visit to New Delhi for the India-U.S. Forum,” Mr. Kwatra posted. “Exchanged perspectives on the trajectory of advanced technologies, including Quantum, and the future of AI, including Physical AI and the expanding India-U.S.A. cooperation in tech space,” the post on X said.

India’s Ambassador to the U.S. Vinay Mohan Kwatra discussed threats posed by terrorism across the world during a meeting with senior U.S. counter-terrorism official Sebastian Gorka.

“Had an engaging conversation with @SebGorka Deputy Assistant to the President & Senior Director for Counterterrorism, National Security Council,” Mr. Kwatra said in a post on X on Sunday (June 7, 2026).

“We shared perspectives on the threats of terrorism, and our counter-terrorism cooperation outlined in India-USA Joint Statement of February 2025,” Mr. Kwatra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump, in February last year, reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought, and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaida, ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021,” said a joint statement issued after Mr. Modi’s meeting with Mr. Trump on February 13, 2025.

The U.S. had also announced the extradition of 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Tahawwur Rana.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi had also called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of 26/11, and 2016 Pathankot air base attack, and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorism.

The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, and prevent terrorists and non-state actors from accessing them, the joint statement from February 2025 had said.

India expects the U.S. team to visit the country for the next round of trade talks, though no dates have been finalised yet, an official said on Monday (May 11, 2026).

The Indian side visited Washington, D.C. in April for an in-person round of meetings with their U.S. counterparts to finalise the details of the interim agreement and take forward the negotiations under the Broader Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

“Now we expect the U.S. team to visit India next for trade talks. No dates have been decided,” the official said.

After the April meet, both sides have agreed to stay engaged to sustain the momentum ahead for the trade talks.

Last month, officials of the two sides discussed several areas, such as market access, non-tariff measures, technical barriers to trade, customs and trade facilitation, investment promotion, economic security alignment and digital trade.

India and the U.S. issued a joint statement on February 7 finalising a framework for an interim trade agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade.

The framework reaffirmed the countries’ commitment to the broader India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement negotiations.

India’s outbound shipments to the U.S. grew marginally by 0.92% to $87.3 billion during the last fiscal year, while imports increased 15.95% to $52.9 billion. The trade surplus declined to $34.4 billion in 2025-26 from $40.89 billion in 2024-25.

Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Amar Preet Singh has arrived in the United States on an official visit to strengthen the India-U.S. defence partnership, and deepen cooperation.

He was received by India’s Ambassador to the U.S., Vinay Mohan Kwatra, who said the visit is a step towards strong and expanding bilateral military ties between the two countries. In a post on X, Mr. Kwatra welcomed the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) on his visit to grow ties between the two Air Forces.

The visit comes amid a series of high-level exchanges between India and the U.S., reflecting growing strategic convergence. Earlier in February, Samuel J. Paparo, Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, had visited India to increase cooperation on shared security interests and strengthen military-to-military ties.

In another key engagement, Elbridge Colby, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, visited India in March to advance the U.S.’s national defence strategy and deepen bilateral defence collaboration. During that visit, he co-chaired the U.S.-India Defence Policy Group meeting with India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.

The discussions built upon the framework for the U.S.-India Major Defence Partnership, signed in October 2025 by the U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and India’s Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

India and the U.S. desire an Indo-Pacific in which no one power can dominate, said a senior Pentagon official, but did not make any reference to the Quad while detailing the Trump administration’s policy for the region.

The official, U.S. Assistant Secretary in the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) Elbridge Colby, is visiting Delhi amidst the war in West Asia, and spoke a day ahead of his talks with Ministry of Defence officials in the Defence Policy Group on Wednesday. While his speech praised India as an “essential partner” in the region, he said both countries had differences but did not need to agree on everything to “cooperate effectively”.

“America’s objective is to build a partnership between two great republics that will form critical pillars of maintaining a favourable and stable balance of power in this critical region,” Mr. Colby told an audience of diplomats and foreign policy thinkers in Delhi. “A strong, confident India is not only good for the Indian people. It is good for Americans as well,” he said. 

Strategic position

Mr. Colby added that India’s importance in the Indo-Pacific region stems from its size and economic potential, and also from its geography and strategic position. 

“India possesses a long tradition of strategic autonomy and a growing capacity to shape events well beyond its borders. It is the largest republic in the world. Its success thus carries profound symbolic and political weight. It has formidable, self-reliant and capable military forces willing and able to shoulder significant security responsibilities,” he said, comparing “vigorous, self-assured states” favourably to those “with dependencies”. 

Mr. Colby’s mention of India’s rise being in the U.S.’s interests follows close on the heels of a controversial speech by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau earlier this month, where he had said the U.S. would not support India’s economic rise as it did with China in the 2000s.

Speaking at the recent Raisina Dialogue, Mr. Landau said: “India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying, we are going to let you develop all these markets, and then, the next thing we know, you are beating us in a lot of commercial things.” His comments had led to sharp criticism in Delhi.

While Mr. Colby’s remarks may be an attempt at damage control, he is expected to face some difficult questions on U.S. strategy during his meetings in Delhi, as the visit comes three weeks into the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, and the resultant energy and fertilizer shortages in India. In addition, reports that the U.S. and Iran could use Pakistan as a mediator or as a venue for talks have been a cause for concern.

The Opposition has also taken aim at the Modi government over the reports, with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh saying India’s position had been undermined due to the government’s foreign policy. Mr. Colby’s lack of any reference to the Australia-India-Japan-U.S. quadrilateral, or Quad will also worry New Delhi, which hoped to host U.S. President Donald Trump for the Quad Summit this year.

In his speech, Mr. Colby also referred to interests as more important to values for the U.S. administration. “Our approach to the strategic partnership is interests-based and realistic, shaped by geopolitics and incentives as opposed to gauzy aspirations or detached idealism,” noting that India too is “not shy” about advancing its own interests and priorities.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants to be the President of peace, especially since the international system hasn’t been able to achieve that, said Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau at the Raisina Dialogue underway in New Delhi on Thursday (March 5, 2026)

Speaking at a curtain-raiser session of the Raisina Dialogues titled “Power, Purpose, & Partnerships: American Foreign Policy in a New Era”, Mr. Landau said, “It is an indictment of the foreign policy establishment that we haven’t found solutions to the conflicts.”

For the American government, Mr. Landau said, the purpose of foreign policy of United States was to advance the country’s national interests. “We are not a charity organisation. We are not United Nations… However, America first does not mean America alone. Just as President Trump wants to make America great again, he will expect that the PM of India and other countries want to make their countries great,” he explained.

In this image posted on March 4, 2026, (from right) United States Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and U.S. Space Force’s General Whiting (left) during a visit at the Akshardham temple, in New Delhi. Photo: X/@DelhiAkshardham via PTI

Mr. Landau, who is leading the U.S. delegation, said the century will see rise of India. “It is in our interest, and we think it’s also India’s interest to be partnered with us,” he said, adding that he was excited about the India-U.S. trade deal, “which is almost at the finishing line now”.

However, Mr. Landau had a warning for India: the U.S. will not make the same mistakes it did with China, “where we let you develop all these markets and then let you beat us with them”.

In response to a question about the ongoing conflict in the Persian Gulf War, Mr. Landau said that the endgame is an Iran that is not a threat to others, one in which Iran does not have access to a nuclear weapon.

‘U.S. an alternate source for oil imports’

When asked if U.S. would allow India to buy Russian oil now that Gulf oil is constrained, Mr. Landau pitched the United States as an alternate source for oil imports. “I hope India is thinking of alternate sources, and I can’t think of a better alternate source than the United States of America, we are a energy rich country.”

Noting that the U.S. is willing to cooperate on energy, Mr. Landau added, “Obviously, you know, there’s long term and short term issues here, and we will work with you to make sure that your energy needs are met in in the short term as well as the long term.”

The Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation (ORF) jointly hosts Raisina Dialogue, the flagship multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics since 2016.

India’s public-sector oil companies have successfully concluded a one-year deal to import liquified petroleum gas (LPG) from the U.S. Gulf coast, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday (November 17, 2025).

In his post on X, Mr. Puri elaborated that India would source about 2.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of liquified petroleum gas from the U.S. Gulf Coast for the contract year 2026 — making it the “first structured contract of U.S. LPG for the Indian market”.

He further said that the 2.2 MTPA LPG import would represent 10% of India’s annual imports in the sector during the mentioned period.

“The purchase is based on using Mount Belvieu as the benchmark for LPG purchases and a team of our officials from Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had visited the U.S. and engaged in discussions with major U.S. producers over the last few months, which have concluded now,” he stated.

The announcement come against the backdrop of India facing 50% tariffs on its exports to the U.S., which also includes a 25% penalty for procuring Russian oil, and several Indian ministers’ statements that India would like to import more energy from the U.S.