New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that the two countries were moving forward through dialogue to resolve trade barriers. Modi described India and the US as \u201cclose friends and natural partners\u201d and said both sides were working to conclude negotiations at the earliest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to my conversation with President Trump. We will work together to ensure a bright and prosperous future for the people of both our countries,\u201d PM Modi said, expressing confidence that the interaction would help unlock the \u201climitless potential\u201d of the India-US partnership.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Trump said he was confident there would be \u201cno difficulty\u201d in reaching \u201csuccessful conclusions\u201d to the trade talks and that he would soon hold discussions with his \u201cgood friend\u201d Modi. His remarks come amid strained ties between the two countries, which analysts say are at their lowest in two decades due to US tariffs and India\u2019s oil imports from Russia.<\/p>\n
Washington has imposed a 25 per cent reciprocal tax on India, in addition to a 25 per cent levy on Russian oil purchases, pushing the overall tax burden on India to 50 per cent \u2014 the highest in the world.<\/p>\n
New Delhi has rejected the measures as \u201cunfair and unreasonable\u201d and defended its Russian oil imports as being in the country\u2019s national interest.<\/p>\n
Despite months of criticism, Trump last week described India-US ties as a \u201cspecial relationship.\u201d \u201cI will always be a friend of Modi. He is a brilliant prime minister, but I don\u2019t like the work he is doing right now,\u201d Trump said at the White House. \u201cIndia and America have a special relationship, there is nothing to worry about. Sometimes such moments come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed US President Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that the two countries were moving forward through dialogue to resolve trade barriers. Modi described India and the US as \u201cclose friends and natural partners\u201d and said both sides were working to conclude negotiations at the earliest. \u201cI look forward to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":50747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-national","category-political-news"],"yoast_head":"\n