US team may head to India for $4 bn patrol jet deal as leaders rekindle trade talks

A team from the US Defense Department and Boeing Co. executives are expected to visit India next week to negotiate the sale of about $4 billion of surveillance aircraft, officials in New Delhi said, as per a Bloomberg report. The countries are seeking to revive trade talks that hit rock bottom last month.

India will discuss the purchase of six P-8I naval patrol aircraft, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. The procurement deal was cleared in 2019 but negotiations had subsequently stalled, they said.

New Delhi had purchased eight P-8Is in a $2.2 billion deal in 2009 and another four more a decade later. The fleet is based out of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is used extensively to patrol the Indian Ocean region and maritime choke points.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the country is resuming trade negotiations with India and he’d speak with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coming weeks, signaling a thaw after weeks of tensions over tariffs and India’s ties with Russia.

Trump slapped 50% tariffs on Indian exports to the US — half of which was a penalty for New Delhi’s purchases of oil from Russia, which the US president says is helping fund President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

As per Bloomberg, the US team’s expected visit next week shows the two sides continue to engage each other on critical issues such as defense despite the fallout over trade. The purchases could also help reduce the US’s trade deficit with India, one of Trump’s key objectives.India, the world’s second biggest importer of weapons, is buying less and less of its defense from Russia. Only 36% of India’s arms imports came from Russia last year, down from 76% in 2009, according to a March report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank that studies conflict, weapon sales and disarmament.At the same time, India has moved closer into the US defense orbit, inking contracts worth nearly $20 billion since 2018, according to a report from the US Congressional Research Service. India green-lit a deal of more than $3 billion for 31 long-range drones made by US defense giant General Atomics last October.