Trump Has Great Respect For PM Modi, They Speak Frequently: White House

Trump’s trade team is in “serious discussions” with India, says Karoline Leavitt, adding that the President greatly respects PM Modi. (IMAGE: REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump “feels very positive and strongly” about the India–US relationship and speaks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently, White House official Karoline Leavitt said.

Leavitt noted that the President had spoken with Modi directly when he celebrated Diwali in the Oval Office alongside several senior Indian-American officials.

“We have a great US Ambassador to India in Mr Sergio Gor, who will represent our country very well,” the White House Press Secretary said.

She added that the President and his trade team are in “very serious discussions” with India on key trade issues. “I know the President has great respect for Prime Minister Modi, and they speak pretty frequently,” she said.

Five rounds of talks have been completed so far for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement between the US and India. The relations between the two countries have been reeling under severe stress after the Trump administration imposed a steep 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods. It includes a 25 per cent additional import duty for buying Russian crude oil.

India has described these duties as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.

Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal last month had said India will not do any deal in a hurry or with a “gun to our head”.

An official last month had told news agency PTI that the proposed bilateral trade deal between India and the US is “very near” to concluding after India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, discussed a mutually beneficial trade agreement, energy security and oil and gas trade with Jeanne Shaheen, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.