Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. promised to build plants in India if the world’s biggest arms importer chose their fighter jets and weapons. That was before President Donald Trump’s America First call.
This week will be a test for that promise as the biggest US defense contractors, Russia’s MiG Corp., and Europe’s Airbus SE line up to display their wares at an air show in Bengaluru in southern India.
Even as they compete for deals, they could find themselves torn between Trump’s push for companies to keep jobs in the US — he has singled out a number of multinational firms on Twitter for public criticism — and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own program that seeks to tie military contracts to some of the manufacturing being done in India.
“All of us in Washington are guessing where Trump is going to land on these issues,” said Alyssa Ayres, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. “He has certainly been very clear in his tweets and direct outreach to American companies that he wants to try to ensure that people don’t move production facilities and try to retain jobs in the U.S.”
India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will use the airshow to outline Modi’s plans to boost the domestic defense industry by giving contracts to local companies, as well as asking foreign manufacturers to tie up with Indian firms, according to people familiar with the plan who are not authorized to speak publicly about it.