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TRANSCRIPT: Trump Hosts a Press Conference with PM Modi

Read the full transcript of President Donald Trump’s joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi at the Oval Office Thursday, Feb 13, 2025.  

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Opening Remarks

DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you very much, please. Great honor. I’m thrilled to welcome the Prime Minister of India, my friend, Narendra Modi, back to the White House. We spent a lot of time here and a lot of time in India, and he’s a very special man. Prime Minister, it is a pleasure to extend to you the same hospitality that you showed Melania and myself when we traveled to your beautiful country five years ago.

It’s hard to believe so long ago, and it seemed like yesterday. It was beautiful. We opened the cricket stadium, 129,000 seats, I think the largest stadium in the world, and it was an incredible period of time. There is truly a special bond between the United States and India, and the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy, and I believe the world’s largest country in terms of the numbers of people.

Today, the Prime Minister and I are announcing a framework to strengthen those ties even further economically, and the U.S.-India compact for the 21st century is a historic initiative that will deepen every aspect of our partnership and our friendship.

Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters.

In 2017, my administration revived and reinvigorated the Quad Security Partnership. In our meeting today, the Prime Minister and I reaffirmed that strong cooperation among the United States, India, Australia, and Japan, and it’s crucial, really, to maintaining peace and prosperity, tranquility even in the Indo-Pacific.

In addition, the United States and India will be working together like never before to confront the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, a threat all over the world, actually.