Washington, DC, Feb 14 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks along with US President Donald Trump at the White House, in Washington, DC on Thursday. (ANI Photo)
| Photo Credit: ANI
Calling for ramping up collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump hailed 2025 as a “pioneering year for U.S.-India civil space cooperation”. The two leaders, who also launched INDUS Innovation bridge, held wide-ranging talks on Thursday (Friday, February 14, 2025 – IST) focussing on broadening the bilateral partnership, including in the fields of defence, energy, space and critical technology.
Modi and Trump called for “more collaboration in space exploration, including on long-duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection,” according to a joint statement issued after the discussions.
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“The leaders committed to further commercial space collaboration through industry engagements in conventional and emerging areas, such as connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and space launch systems, space sustainability, space tourism and advanced space manufacturing,” it said.
The Prime Minister’s visit to the U.S. from February 12 to February 13 came nearly three weeks after the January 20 inauguration of President Trump.
In the joint statement, the leaders “hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for US-India civil space cooperation,” with plans for a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to bring the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).
It also mentioned an early launch of the joint ‘NISAR’ mission, the first-of-its-kind to systematically map changes to the Earth’s surface using dual radars. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar or ‘NISAR’ will be used by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for a variety of purposes, including mapping agricultural areas and landslide-prone areas.
The leaders also announced the launch of the U.S.-India ‘TRUST’ (‘Transforming the Relationship Utilising Strategic Technology’) initiative, which will catalyse government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas such as defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space.
The statement also said that the TRUST will encourage use of verified technology vendors and ensure that sensitive technologies are protected.
As a central pillar of the ‘TRUST’ initiative, the leaders “committed to work with U.S. and Indian private industry to put forward a ‘U.S.-India Roadmap on Accelerating AI Infrastructure’ by the end of the year, it said.
The roadmap will identify constraints to financing, building, powering, and connecting large-scale U.S.-origin AI infrastructure in India with milestones and future actions, it said.
At a media briefing here on Thursday (Friday, February 14, 2025 – IST), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the two leaders launched a new, innovation bridge modelled after the successful INDUS-X platform for defence applications.
INDUS Innovation is meant to focus on space, energy and other emerging technologies to maintain U.S. and India leadership in innovation and to meet the needs of the 21st century, the joint statement added.
The leaders also reinforced their commitment to the INDUS-X initiative, which facilitates partnerships between U.S. and Indian defence companies, investors and universities to produce critical capability for our militaries, and welcomed the next summit in 2025.
Published – February 14, 2025 11:28 pm IST