You’d have to be particularly cynical to deny that the Modi-Trump meeting went off better than what was expected. Ahead of the meeting, there were many who were anxiously predicting that Modi wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to a Trump basking in the afterglow of a mammoth mandate. Modi met Trump when he had announced the “big one"—an across-the-board reciprocal tariff cut.

But at the end of what was a textbook display of tinsel diplomacy, Modi and Trump glided over the biggest bugbears effortlessly, even exuding a genuine desire for consensus rather than point-scoring.

On tariffs, while there was some faux, good-natured jousting from Trump, the joint statement committed the two sides to........

© News18