Trump, Modi speak for first time in 3 months, agree to restart trade talks

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke directly for the first time in three months, agreeing to maintain close cooperation, as Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington to push forward the final stages of a bilateral trade deal.

According to Reuters and Bloomberg, India's Prime Minister's Office said Modi and Trump held a phone call Wednesday and reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation across trade, defense, energy and critical technology.

"The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to further advancing the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. "They agreed to deepen cooperation and maintain close communication for the benefit of the people of both countries."

The two leaders also exchanged views on regional and international developments and discussed the international community's efforts to promote global peace and security. Both sides agreed to stay in regular contact going forward.

The call was the first direct communication between Trump and Modi since they held separate bilateral talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France on June 17.

That meeting had itself been the first since relations between the two countries soured — first over a dispute about credit for mediating last year's armed conflict between India and Pakistan, and then over tariffs.

Trump and Modi have spoken by phone several times since their White House summit in February last year, but have not met face to face in more than a year.

Wednesday's call came as Goyal was in the United States to finalize trade negotiations.

Goyal attended a G20 trade ministers' meeting and plans to meet with US counterparts through Monday to discuss the final terms of a first-phase trade agreement between the two countries.

The United States and India reached a tentative agreement in February to conclude a first-phase trade deal, with the two sides agreeing to work out the details before signing a formal accord.

Under that preliminary agreement, the United States agreed to lower its country-specific reciprocal tariff on India from 25 percent to 18 percent and to drop a punitive 25 percent tariff tied to India's imports of Russian crude oil.

The final deal has been delayed — first by a Section 301 trade investigation the Trump administration launched in March, following a US Supreme Court ruling in February that found reciprocal tariffs unlawful, and more recently by a gap between the two sides over tariff rates.