President Donald Trump greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House with a bear hug on Thursday and called him “a great friend of mine,” but nonetheless warned that India won’t be spared from higher tariffs he’s begun imposing on U.S. trade partners around the world.

Trump, who had previously derided India as the “tariff king,” called the import levies imposed by Modi’s country “very unfair and strong.”

“Whatever India charges, we charge them,” Trump said at a joint news conference where he stood next to Modi. “So, frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge.”

As he has while recently hosting other foreign leaders, Trump talked about ensuring that the U.S. erases its trade deficit with India. He suggested that could be done by increasing U.S. energy exports to India but also promised to restore “fairness and reciprocity” to the economic relationship and said he and Modi had begun working on a major trade deal that could be completed later this year.

The U.S. and India have a trade deficit of $50 billion in India’s favor. The Indo-U.S. goods and services trade totaled around $190.1 billion in 2023. According to India’s External Affairs Ministry, the U.S. exports to India were worth nearly $70 billion and imports $120 billion.

Modi, meanwhile, continued his personal trend of lavishing praise on Trump. The prime minister said that he’s determined to “Make India Great Again,” or “MIGA” — a play on the president’s “MAGA” or “Make America Great Again” catchphrase and movement.

Trump also said he would back extraditing one of the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks — appearing to referencing Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was convicted in 2011 in the U.S. for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.

Trump also said the U.S. would soon increase military sales to India by “many millions of dollars,” paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighter planes — something the country has long sought.

Before Modi’s White House arrival, Trump signed an order to increase tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports, which affects American trading partners around the world — including India.

Modi had been looking to avoid additional U.S. tariffs and to improve relations with Washington and the West overall, which have been frosty lately after Modi refused to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine.

Trump previously imposed tariffs on China, and says more are coming against the European Union — while threatening similar against Canada and Mexico. He also expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum he initially imposed during his first term.

The White House insists that in signing Thursday’s round of what Trump called “reciprocal” tariffs, he is leveling the playing field between U.S. manufacturers and foreign competitors. These new taxes would likely be paid by American consumers and businesses either directly or in the form of higher prices, though.

Even before Modi arrived, New Delhi showed a willingness to buy more American oil and lower its tariffs on U.S. goods.

Tariffs aside, Trump has used the opening weeks of his second term to say he’ll stamp out U.S. trade deficits around the world, including during his meetings at the White House last week with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Modi is the fourth foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration last month, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ishiba of Japan and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Prior to meeting with Trump, Modi sat down with national security adviser Mike Waltz. He also met with billionaire SpaceX founder and Trump loyalist and adviser Elon Musk.

White House bans AP journalist again

Meanwhile, the White House blocked an Associated Press journalist from covering the news conference, upping the stakes in a disagreement between the news agency and the Trump administration over AP’s style decision to stick with the name “Gulf of Mexico” for the body of water that the president rechristened the “Gulf of America.”

Julie Pace, the AP’s senior vice president and executive editor, called it a “deeply troubling escalation” and “a plain violation of the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.

“We urge the Trump administration in the strongest terms to stop this practice,” Pace, who also wrote to Trump’s chief of staff on Wednesday, said in a statement. “This is now the third day AP reporters have been barred from covering the president — first as a member of the pool, and now from a formal press conference — an incredible disservice to the billions of people who rely on The Associated Press for nonpartisan news.”

Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, issued a statement Thursday supporting the AP.