Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there has been “significant progress” in negotiations with the United States on a long-awaited trade agreement following his meeting with President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, France.
The two leaders met on Wednesday, marking their first face-to-face talks since February 2025 in Washington, as both sides pushed forward efforts to resolve tariff and market access issues that have slowed discussions for years.
“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 whether the US and India are close to sealing a 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 both leaders had instructed officials to continue working towards a “commercially meaningful agreement at the earliest”.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is expected to visit India next week for another round of negotiations.
Washington and New Delhi have set an ambitious target of lifting bilateral trade to US$500 billion by 2030, with talks covering tariffs and broader market access issues.
Negotiations had earlier reached an initial understanding in February but progress slowed after Trump’s tariff measures were struck down by the US Supreme Court, prompting renewed investigations into trade practices and the introduction of a blanket 10 per cent tariff.
India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in early June that both sides were “about 99 per cent” done with the first tranche of the deal.
Reuters
