Trump due to get started first official visit to India
US President Donald Trump is due to start his first official trip of India with a focus on deepening ties between your world's two largest democracies.
Mr Trump will get to Gujarat, home state of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he's likely to address a rally at a cricket stadium.
He will then happen to be Agra to see the Taj Mahal, before arriving in the administrative centre Delhi for talks with Mr Modi.
But amid the fanfare, a much-talked about trade deal is unlikely to happen.
THE UNITED STATES is one India's most significant trade partners, with bilateral trade totalling $142.6bn (£110.3bn) in 2018. The US had a $25.2bn goods and services trade deficit with India, its 9th major trading partner in goods.
Despite growing political and strategic ties, there has been tension over trade issues. Mr Trump has said India's tariffs - taxes on imports - are "unacceptable", and has described India as the "king" of tariffs.
In June 2019, the US ended preferential trade status for India, the greatest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) - a scheme that allows some goods to enter the US duty-free.
The move caused a diplomatic rift between the two countries after India imposed retaliatory tariffs on 28 US products.
The official US report last year said India's tariff rates on other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) remain "the best of any major economy".
The two sides have also differed over price controls on medical equipment and India's new rules on data storage.
The trade deal was likely to resolve many of these issues. But just days prior to the visit, Mr Trump announced that he was "saving the big deal for down the road".
Reports say negotiations continued between the two sides until last week, but they were not able to reach a consensus on issues just like the restoration of the GSP for Indian goods, and India agreeing to open a few of its key markets for all of us goods.
Not surprisingly, Mr Trump and Mr Modi appear to have forged a good personal relationship: both leaders addressed a rare mass rally for a foreign leader billed as "Howdy, Modi!" which was attended by 50,000 Indians moving into Houston last year.
This time, Mr Modi is pulling out all of the stops to fete the united states president at an identical public extravaganza - a "Hello Trump" reception in a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, the primary city in Gujarat.
"We're not treated perfectly by India, but I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a whole lot. And he explained we'll have seven million people between your airport and the function," Mr Trump has said, referring to the planned reception.
Indian officials say Mr Trump's visit will be "brief but intense" where the two sides are expected sign a clutch of other agreements associated with intellectual property rights, trade and homeland security.
In a clear sign of ever closer defence relations, India is expected to sign two big handles the US to obtain 30 American defence helicopters - MH-60R Seahawk and AH-64E Apache - worth more than $2.6bn.
Also, the united states energy firm Westinghouse is expected to sign a fresh agreement with state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India for the way to obtain six nuclear reactors, according to Reuters news agency. THE UNITED STATES has been discussing the sale of nuclear reactors to India since a 2008 landmark civil nuclear energy deal.
