Trump Calls Modi to Discuss Hormuz Strait, Pentagon Official Says India ‘Essential Partner’ in Indo-Pacific
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (March 24, 2026) called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the phone to discuss the West Asian war, including the importance of opening the Strait of Hormuz, a key water channel in the Gulf region critical for a smooth oil and gas trade.
A day after he paused the military operations against Iran and announced back-channel talks for peace, Trump made the first phone call after launching the airstrikes on Iran on February 28, in which Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in his office compound.
Modi posted on X that he received a phone call from Trump, and that the two leaders discussed the West Asia situation. “Received a call from President Trump and had a useful exchange of views on the situation in West Asia,” he posted.
“India supports de-escalation and restoration of peace at the earliest. Ensuring that the Strait of Hormuz remains open, secure, and accessible is essential for the whole world. We agreed to stay in touch regarding efforts towards peace and stability,” he added in the post.
US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor had earlier posted on X that Trump spoke with Modi about the West Asian war. “President Donald Trump just spoke with Prime Minister Modi. They discussed the ongoing situation in the Middle East (West Asia), including the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open,” he said in the post.
The phone call and the X post by both India and the US signalled concerns over the disruption in the global energy supplies that has resulted in a huge spike in the oil and gas prices, as tankers are stuck at the Strait of Hormuz after Iran declared it had taken control of the waterway and had imposed a military blockade.
About 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and the waterway is used by Gulf nations, including Qatar, the UAE, and Kuwait, for transporting their oil and gas to the world. The Iranian blockade of the Hormuz Strait has adversely impacted both the suppliers and buyers of oil and gas globally.
A day before Trump called Modi, India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar spoke to his counterpart and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, their first phone conversation since the US-Israel war on Iran began. “Our discussions focused on the West Asia conflict and its impact on the international economy. We particularly spoke about energy security concerns. Agreed to remain in touch,” Jaishankar said regarding the phone call.
On the same day, the US Under-Secretary of War for Policy, Elbridge Colby, who was in India, spoke at an event, where he said India was “an essential partner” for the US in the Indo-Pacific region. “The United States and India do not need to agree on everything to cooperate effectively. What matters is that our interests and objectives increasingly converge on the most fundamental issues,” Colby said.
“Differences and even disputes are fully compatible with deepening alignment and cooperation on strategic matters. The roots of our partnership are deeper than optics and more durable than superficial comity; they are, rather, thickly embedded in lasting strategic mutual self-interest,” he added.
“America’s objective is to build a partnership between two great republics that will form critical pillars of maintaining a favourable and stable balance of power in this critical region,” Colby told an audience of diplomats and foreign policy thinkers. “A strong, confident India is not only good for the Indian people. It is good for Americans as well,” he added.
Colby said India and the US sought an Indo-Pacific in which no single power could dominate the region. He did not mention the Quad, in which the two nations, along with Japan and Australia, have come together to address Indo-Pacific challenges. “Both of our countries benefit from an Indo-Pacific in which no power can dominate the region. Both benefit from open trade and national autonomy. These are the concrete, shared interests that form the foundation of our enduring strategic partnership,” he said.
“We both recognise the strategic centrality of military power for a stable balance in the region, and thus that defence cooperation should enhance real capability rather than be merely totemic or driven by inertia,” Colby noted. “In this light, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the steady expansion of defence cooperation between the United States and India. As Secretary (Pete) Hegseth put it, our defence ties have never been stronger,” he added.
As India and the US “look ahead to a critical new decade of our Major Defense Partnership,” Colby would meet with India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh on Wednesday (March 25) and chair the Defense Policy Group. “Our focus must now be on advancing forward from these important agreements to serve a larger strategic purpose: strengthening the ability of both countries to contribute to a stable balance of power in this vital region,” the US Under-Secretary of War for Policy said.
“Because we are focused on results and reality, we are concentrated on capabilities that matter in the Indo-Pacific strategic environment. Our goals should be practical: to ensure that our forces can operate effectively together when our interests align, and in any case to see that India possesses the capabilities necessary to defend its sovereignty and contribute to a favourable regional balance of power,” he said.
“Following from this, the United States is committed to working with India to hasten and augment cooperation in areas including but not limited to long-range precision fires, resilient logistics, maritime domain awareness, anti-submarine warfare, and advanced technologies,” he added.
Colby’s comments contrast with controversial comments by US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau made at the Raisina Dialogue earlier this month, when the latter said the US would not support India’s economic rise and repeat a mistake it made with China at the beginning of the 21st Century.
