US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calls on PM Narendra Modi

While Modi is expected to lobby for US visas for technology workers from India, “anti-worker” Modi’s Government has been criticized for generating fewer jobs, cracking down on labor rights and exclusively focusing on foreign investments in its three years in office. This shouldn’t have been necessary. Modi, like Trump, is a purveyor of amicable, businesslike conversation – even if it masks festering concerns.

Perhaps that’s fitting, as there is so much in the relationship to work on.

While Trump has pledged to bring jobs back to the US coal industry, Modi’s government has set ambitious renewable energy targets – including a pledge to sell only electric cars by 2030.

The Prime Minister assured the Indian diaspora in the USA that his government will continue to strive to take India to newer heights. India can not be an exception. While the U.S. side opted for a more nuanced approach with Pakistan, it urged India to revive talks with Pakistan, which are now stalled.

As part of this policy, India must embrace Trump’s style of viewing everything through the prism of quid-pro-quo. This would-be Modi’s third meeting with a US President inside the Oval Office, the first two being with Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in September of 2014 and June 2016.

As part of its commitment under the landmark global deal, India promised to reduce the emissions intensity of its gross domestic product by at last 33 percent by 2030 when compared to 2005 levels. It is here that Modi must find a solution to the paradox. President Trump should also continue the trilateral strategic dialogue inaugurated in 2011. India is uniquely placed.

300 million of our teenagers will be in the job market within years.

And it is here that Modi faces his biggest problem.

Saying that Indians in America have not just helped India progress but also the US, Modi said that success and action of the Indian diaspora is still echoing in the world. (In fact, robots are taking American jobs, and they will continue to do so.) Trump recently signed an executive order that would make it more hard for Indians to obtain H-1 visas, which are highly sought after and comprise an important source of remittance revenue in India. U.S.is seeking stronger Indian protection of intellectual property rights, reductions in tariffs and narrowing of the $30 billion trade deficit.

These are not areas where Modi can offer Trump a quick fix. “I’m not at liberty of telling those numbers, but I think I would say nearly half a dozen of them made a very large dollar number commitment also as they move forward”, Mukesh Aghi, the president of the US India Business Council (USIBC) said.

So how may Modi counter these charges if Trump team raises them, as they very well might? India is one of the world’s top polluters, and the world community views containing the country’s emissions as crucial to the effort to stop global warming. The two are likely to focus on bright spots, such as the fact that the U.S.is India’s second-largest defense supplier, or that the Trump administration recently approved a $2 billion deal to sell India drones to protect its coastline.

Modi is also expected to seek assurances on the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative that facilitate US arms technology transfers to India, Bloomberg reported.

After their talks, Modi and Trump will make statements in the Rose Garden.

Trump’s administration has meanwhile indicated it could take a tougher stance on Pakistan, which India has long accused of harboring militant groups.

Maintaining that the entire world is suffering because of the menace of terrorism, which is against mankind, the Prime Minister said, “When India spoke about terrorism about 20-25 years back, for many countries, it was beyond their understanding”.

Trump says his daughter, Ivanka Trump, has accepted an invitation to travel to India this fall for an entrepreneurship summit.

However, all these calculations may go awry depending on one factor that could override everything else – personal rapport. Don’t rule that possibility out.