NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there had been “significant progress” in long-running talks with Washington for a trade deal, according to a statement issued on Thursday (Jun 18) after his meeting with President Donald Trump.
The leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian in France on Wednesday, their first face-to-face talks since February 2025 in Washington.
“The leaders noted with particular satisfaction the significant progress made in negotiations towards an interim Bilateral Trade Agreement”, a readout of the meeting from India’s foreign ministry read.
Asked if the US and India are close to a trade deal, Trump told reporters in Evian that they were “very close”.
“He’s a very tough negotiator, one of the toughest, actually. So you look at this man, I’ll give you a lesson,” said the US president.
“He’s the most beautiful looking man. He looks so nice. He’s like an angel, but actually he’s a killer.”
The Indian statement said the leaders had ordered officials to work towards striking a “commercially meaningful agreement at the earliest”.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will visit India next week for the latest round of talks.
Washington and New Delhi have set a target of boosting bilateral trade to US$500 billion by 2030, holding multiple rounds of negotiations in a bid to resolve market access and tariff disputes.
The two countries reached an initial understanding for the trade deal in February, but negotiations slowed after Trump’s sweeping tariff measures were struck down by the US Supreme Court.
After the court order, the Trump administration launched investigations into unfair trade practices against several countries, including India, while imposing a blanket 10 per cent tariff.
India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in early June that the countries were “about 99 per cent” done with the first tranche of a trade deal.
Modi also urged Trump to ensure the safety of Indian seafarers as part of the implementation of an Iran-US deal aimed at ending the Middle East war, after three Indian sailors were killed in a US strike on a commercial vessel off Oman on Jun 10.
The South Asian nation has been hard hit by the Middle East conflict, as energy supplies were throttled by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil and gas transport.
Modi on Wednesday warned that the impact of the war would take time to resolve.
“The disruptions in fuel, fertiliser and food supply chains caused by the crisis … will continue to impact the Global South for a considerable period,” he said, according to a statement.