Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had had a “very warm and engaging” phone conversation with President Donald Trump on Thursday, at a time when India is seeking relief from steep US tariffs on some of the country’s key exports.
During the phone call, which came as another round of talks to thrash out an Indo-US trade deal ended in Delhi, the two leaders underlined the shared efforts to enhance bilateral trade, sources said. The official Indian readout makes no mention of the prolonged wrangling over the Bilateral Trade Agreement.
The conversation took place a day after US trade representative Jamieson Greer said in Washington that the US had received the “best ever” offer from India while maintaining that New Delhi had been a “difficult nut to crack”.
It was a tweet from Modi that revealed that the conversation had taken place.
“Had a very warm and engaging conversation with President Trump. We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments,” Modi said in a post on X.
“India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity. @realDonaldTrump @POTUS.”
For nearly two hours after the Prime Minister’s post, there was no word from the Trump administration on the telephone call.
The Indian official readout did not provide too many details on the conversation, and largely echoed what the Prime Minister had said.
“Both leaders reviewed the steady progress in India-US bilateral relations and exchanged views on key regional and global developments,” it said.
“Prime Minister Modi and President Trump reiterated that India and the United States will continue to work closely together to advance global peace, stability, and prosperity.”
This is the first publicised contact between the two leaders since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s high-on-optics visit to India last week.
Apart from discussing bilateral issues, Putin had briefed Modi on developments relating to the Ukraine conflict, including negotiations with the US.
Modi was the first world leader Putin had met after his five-hour negotiations in Moscow with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, on the new Ukraine peace plan.
Trump and Modi have spoken three times since the President doubled tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50 per cent, hitting the exports of textiles, chemicals and foodstuff such as shrimp.
Trade negotiations between the two sides collapsed in late July, after India resisted opening its market to US farm products and declined to acknowledge Trump’s role in mediating during an India-Pakistan conflict.
Talks have continued since then, amid signs that Indian refiners are cutting down on Russian oil purchases after the US imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil to pressure Moscow over the Ukraine war.
Putin last week offered India uninterrupted fuel supplies and challenged US pressure on New Delhi not to buy Russian fuel.
Exports to the US fell nearly 9 per cent year-on-year in October to $6.31 billion from $6.91 billion a year ago, though they were higher than the $5.47 billion recorded in September, Indian government data shows.
Washington is pushing India to lower tariffs and non-tariff barriers on US goods and open its market to American farm products, including soybean and grain sorghum.
Sources said Trump and Modi discussed expanding their countries’ cooperation on critical technologies, energy, defence and security, and other priority areas that are central to the implementation of the India-US Compact (Catalysing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce and Technology) for the 21st century.
The two leaders had launched the India-US Compact when they met in Washington in February soon after Trump’s inauguration in January-end.
The aim of this new initiative is to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation.
Additional reporting by PTI