Narendra Modi visits Washington as Trump threatens new tariffs

Good morning and happy Friday. Donald Trump is hosting Narendra Modi at the White House. More on their meeting below, plus:

• Apple’s AI partnership with Alibaba

• Europe’s response to US-Russia talks on Ukraine

• How Indonesia became the ‘Opec of nickel’

Narendra Modi’s meeting with Donald Trump at the White House is under way. The Indian prime minister is hoping to fend off US action on tariffs and migration.

India billed Modi’s visit as a warm meeting of like-minded leaders. However, analysts and people briefed on the trip said Modi would seek to placate a president who has previously called India a “tariff king” and “big abuser”.

While India is not a top global exporter, it has high average tariffs and ranks 10th among countries with which the US has a deficit.

Their meeting took place hours after Trump ordered his trade advisers to come up with “reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners. An analysis by Capital Economics found that India would be the hardest hit by the president’s plan if it factors in levies on US exports and domestic value-added taxes.

Just moments ago, Trump said India would “be purchasing a lot of our oil and gas” as he appeared alongside Modi at the White House. The US president said he and Modi would also discuss trade and that the two countries had some “very big trade deals to announce in the very near future”.

Follow our live blog for updates on Modi’s meeting with Trump.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:

• Economic data: Singapore and Malaysia report fourth-quarter GDP.

• Munich Security Conference: The annual conference focusing on international security challenges begins, running until Sunday.

• Middle East: In Gaza, Hamas is due to free three Israeli hostages in return for dozens of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Alibaba’s chair has said it will provide technology for Apple’s artificial intelligence-capable iPhone models sold in China. The high-profile partnership comes after a top Chinese regulator last year indicated that Apple needed to partner with a local company to win approval to release its AI features in China. Here’s what we know about the agreement.

• ByteDance: US private equity groups have invested billions of dollars in data centres serving the TikTok owner, in a dealmaking frenzy now threatened by a US crackdown on Chinese companies’ access to the best chips.

2. China’s military exercises around Taiwan have become so extensive that they can soon be used as a “fig leaf” to conceal an attack on the island, according to the top US military commander in the Indo-Pacific. Speaking at the Honolulu Defense Forum, navy Admiral Samuel Paparo also warned about rising co-operation between China, Russia and North Korea, describing it as an “emerging axis of autocracy”.

3. European officials are reeling from being cut out of US-Russia peace negotiations on Ukraine. More than half a dozen senior European officials told the FT they expected Trump to tell them they must pay for Ukrainian reconstruction and deploy troops there to maintain a peace deal in which they would not be involved.

4. Exclusive: Arm plans to launch its own chip this year after securing Meta as one of its first customers, in a radical change to the SoftBank-owned group’s business model of licensing its blueprints to the likes of Apple and Nvidia. The move could also upend the balance of power in the $700bn semiconductor industry, putting Arm into competition with some of its biggest customers.

5. India’s Adani Group has decided to pull out of its $440mn wind power projects in Sri Lanka after the new government in Colombo launched a review of the tariffs agreed for the deal. Adani’s withdrawal comes as governments in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have started to re-examine power projects with the conglomerate that were signed by their predecessors.

The Big Read

In just under a decade, Indonesia has become the world’s largest producer of nickel, the metal crucial to the energy transition because of its use in batteries for electric vehicles. The south-east Asian country now controls more of the world’s supply of nickel than Opec did of oil at the cartel’s peak in the 1970s — then about half of global crude oil output. How Indonesia uses this newfound power is going to be crucial for the world economy and international business.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Shareholder capitalism, the Japanese way: An obsession with the UN’s SDGs allows companies to create a smokescreen, writes Leo Lewis.

• ‘Steroid Olympics’: Donald Trump’s son has backed a proposed sports event for athletes using performance enhancing drugs.

• Artificial intelligence: Big Tech is moving on from last month’s DeepSeek shock, writes Richard Waters. What does the speedy return to equilibrium say about the investment case for AI?

Chart of the day

China’s coal plant construction surged last year to the highest level in almost a decade, conflicting with President Xi Jinping’s promise that carbon emissions would peak before 2030, researchers have said.

Take a break from the news . . . 

“I am moving into a new, more senior role and want clothes that reflect the change. How do I find the right pieces?” Style columnist Anna Berkeley answers a reader’s question about office dress codes.