New Delhi: When External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar needed a meeting with CIA Director John Ratcliffe in June 2025, the request didn’t come through India’s ambassador. When a multi-party delegation wanted to meet US Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Indian diplomats didn’t make the calls. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on social media tagging Donald Trump, it wasn’t embassy staff who flagged it to the US President’s communications team.It was Jason Miller, a Trump campaign veteran running a small Arlington lobbying firm called SHW Partners LLC.A Foreign Agents Registration Act filing submitted December 7, 2025, reveals that for six months, spanning India’s biggest military confrontation with Pakistan in decades as well as the fraught trade negotiations with the Trump administration, the Indian Embassy effectively outsourced nearly all diplomatic contacts to a lobbying firm.The filing documents at least 60 contacts between Miller’s firm and US government officials, from cabinet secretaries to White House chiefs of staff to Fox News anchors. The filing was first posted by an X user on January 4.India has so far paid Miller’s firm US $900,000 for six months of work, split into two payments of US $450,000 each on April 25 and July 28, in 2025. The total contract is for US $1.8 million for the year.Miller was a senior communications adviser and one of the most visible spokespersons during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, who later served as a senior adviser in the 2020 and 2024 campaigns. After Trump’s return to office in January 2025, Miller landed the Indian government as his first – and only – disclosed client.The partnership, which began on April 24, 2025, came at a critical moment. Two days earlier, on April 22, terrorists attacked a tourist site in Pahalgam, Kashmir, killing at least 26 people. India accused Pakistan of complicity. Vice President J.D. Vance was scheduled to visit India the next day. The region was on a tinder box.The FARA filing reveals that the arrangement with SHW Partners was far more extensive than initially understood.The chronological log of contacts begins on April 24, 2025, the day Miller and the Embassy of India filed their FARA registration on the US Department of Justice database.On that single day, SHW Partners made at least four documented calls to senior US officials about arranging meetings for Indian diplomats. A call to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative (USTR), about “US-India trade conversations”. A call to Undersecretary of War Elbridge Colby requesting for a meeting with Indian ambassador Vinay Kwatra and the Office of the Vice President about Vance’s forthcoming visit to India.The next entries were on May 7, when India attacked terrorist infrastructure inside Pakistan occupied Kashmir and mainland Pakistan. There was only a single call made on that day to a prominent anchor on Fox News, the news channel aligned with the Trump administration.The next listing was on May 10, the day India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire after four days of military conflict following Operation Sindoor strikes into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.On that day, SHW Partners made multiple contacts with senior American officials. The filing lists calls with National Security Council director Ricky Gill, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House communication director Steven Cheung and USTR Greer. The purpose listed for all of them, including the senior US trade official, was the same – “discuss media coverage of Operation Sindoor”.By the time that these phone calls were made on May 10 in Washington, the Indian government was grappling with the fallout from President Trump announcing at 5.25 pm India time (7.55 a.m. eastern) that the US had “mediated” and made India and Pakistan agree to a “full and immediate” ceasefire.On the same day, Secretary Rubio had announced that the US and India had agreed “to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”. Thereafter, Trump also said that he will be working with both countries to find a “solution” to the Kashmir dispute.It took the Ministry of External Affairs three days to publicly reject the claim of US brokering the ceasefire and assert that the decision to halt hostilities followed Indian military action that compelled Pakistan to stand down.Prime Minister Modi also informed Trump in a phone call on June 17 that India had never, “at any level”, discussed a trade deal or third-party mediation with the US during its military standoff with Pakistan.A day later on June 18, a call was placed by the lobbying firm to Chief of Staff Wiles for the “media coverage of Operation Sindoor and status of US-India trade conversations”.It was during this period that President Trump hosted a luncheon for Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir, marking what appeared to be the first such close engagement between a serving US president and a sitting Pakistani army chief. It was clear that Trump took a shine to Munir, who returned to Washington later in the year, this time accompanying Pakistan’s prime minister, as Islamabad also moved to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.The trade drumbeatThe most repetitive pattern in the FARA filing is the phrase “discuss status of US-India trade conversationsv. This phrase appears 30 times across 60 total contacts. Half of all documented interactions were check-ins on ongoing trade negotiations.The targets were consistent. USTR Greer was contacted 13 times. Secretary of Commerce Lutnick was contacted 11 times. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent was contacted 3 times.Trump had threatened 26% reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods, paused for 90 days in April 2025 to allow for negotiations. The stakes were high for India’s $212 billion bilateral trade relationship with the US.Even as trade discussions were going on, Trump announced on July 30 that New Delhi would face a 25% tariff plus an additional penalty from August 1, citing India’s high import tariffs, non-tariff barriers and ties with Russia.The FARA filings show that on July 30, 2025, SHW Partners held three separate calls on behalf of India with senior US officials to “discuss the status of U.S.–India trade conversations”, including with Wiles, Lutnick and Greer.Till now, India and the United States have not announced any trade deal.Social media coordination: Flagging Modi’s postsIn late September and October 2025, Prime Minister Modi engaged in sustained public diplomacy with President Trump, largely centred on the latter’s Middle East initiatives. The FARA filing reveals that coordinating this social media diplomacy became another task outsourced to Miller’s firm.On September 6, Trump had made positive statements about US-India ties after a period of strain. Modi responded, “Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties. India and the US have a very positive and forward-looking Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership.”Three days later, Miller had placed calls to White House communications director Cheung and a key White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino to “Flag social media post by Prime Minister Modi”. Earlier on September 9, Trump had posted that India and US were “continuing negotiations” about trade barrier and there was “no difficulty” in reaching a trade deal.A week later, Trump called Modi to wish him a happy birthday on his 75th. Modi posted, “Thank you, my friend, President Trump, for your phone call and warm greetings on my 75th birthday. Like you, I am also fully committed to taking the India-US Comprehensive and Global Partnership to new heights. We support your initiatives towards a peaceful resolution of the conflicts.”As Trump’s Gaza peace initiative gained momentum, Modi became an active public supporter, tagging all posts to the US President. On Sep 30, he welcomed “President Donald J. Trump’s announcement of a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict.” On October 4, he praised “President Trump’s leadership as peace efforts in Gaza make decisive progress.”On October 9, Modi posted twice about Trump. First, he wrote about his call to “my friend” Trump to congratulate him on the “success” of the Gaza peace plan and reviewed the “good progress achieved in trade negotiations”.Then he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on “the progress made under President Trump’s Gaza peace plan”, welcoming “the agreement on the release of hostages and enhanced humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza”.On October 13, Modi welcomed the release of hostages and said that it was due to the “unwavering peace efforts of President Trump and the strong resolve of Prime Minister Netanyahu”.The filings show a spike in coordination around Trump’s White House Diwali celebrations. On Oct 20 alone, SHW Partners made four contacts – calls to two White House deputy chiefs of staff, Dan Scavino and James Blair, to flag Modi’s posts, and separate calls to Jim Goyer and to Wiles to discuss the Diwali event. Trump hosted the celebration on October 21, praising Modi as “a great person” and “a great friend”. Modi responded the following day, thanking Trump for his “warm Diwali greetings” and expressing hope that the two democracies would “stand united against terrorism in all its forms”.On October 22, SHW Partners called Cheung again to flag Modi’s social media post. SHW Partners placed another call that day: to Wiles, logged as a discussion related to the Diwali celebration. That same day, Modi posted publicly thanking Trump for his “warm Diwali greetings” and expressing hope that the two democracies would “stand united against terrorism in all its forms”.Arranging official meetingsBeyond calls and social media coordination, SHW Partners functioned as a meeting facilitator for Indian officials visiting Washington. The filing documents multiple requests, all phrased as “Embassy of India meeting request”.The FARA filing reveals that SHW Partners functioned essentially as a meeting broker for Indian officials visiting Washington.The firm arranged or attempted to arrange meetings for External Affairs Minister Jaishankar with Vice President Vance, CIA’s Ratcliffe and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. It coordinated meetings for Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Deputy National Security Advisor Pavan Kapoor with War Department officials. It set up meetings for multi-party delegations with senior officials.It arranged meetings for Ambassador Kwatra with Senator Tom Cotton and Undersecretary Colby. Most of them, as per comparing the dates of the call and the start of the visit, were last minute requests.The use of a lobbying firm to arrange meetings for ministers and officials suggests a belief that in Trump’s Washington, official diplomatic channels no longer work as effectively as personal connections to the president’s inner circle.Incidentally, the Indian Embassy had also signed a contract with Mercury Public Affairs for US $225,000 for a three-month engagement till November 2025. Trump’s Chief of Staff Wiles had overseen the firm’s DC and Florida offices, till she left to join the presidential campaign in 2024.A government source well-versed with Washington protocol said that India had always had a tradition for hiring lobbying firms. But they were usually for “special cases”, such as projects with US Congress, “not for routine engagements”.When contacted, the Indian embassy in Washington spokesperson stated that it was “standard practice for embassies, private and business organisations in the USA to hire the services of lobbyists and consultants to augment outreach”. The embassy added that such firms were hired “consistent with local practice and requirements under successive governments since the 1950s”.