India-US ties: Modi and Vance praise progress in trade talks as higher tariffs loom

India and the US are making progress in negotiating a bilateral trade deal, the countries said after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vice-President JD Vance in Delhi.

Vance is currently on a four-day visit to India with his wife and three children.

“We are committed to mutually beneficial cooperation, including in trade, technology, defence, energy and people-to-people exchanges,” Modi wrote on X after the meeting on Monday night. He also hosted a dinner for Vance and his family at his residence.

India is among a number of countries negotiating trade deals with the US during President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on higher tariffs, which ends on 9 July.

India was set to face 27% US tariffs before the pause was announced. Since then, Delhi and Washington have been working towards an early conclusion of trade negotiations.

Modi and Trump share a warm personal relationship – the Indian prime minister was among the first global leaders to visit Trump after his second term began. But the US president has repeatedly taken aim at India’s high tariffs, branding it a “tariff king” and a “big abuser” of trade ties.

Even in the statement issued on Monday after Vance’s meeting, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer highlighted the “serious lack of reciprocity in the trade relationship with India”.

India has already cut tariffs on a number of goods in the past few months and is reportedly considering more wide-ranging cuts to pacify Trump. But sectors like agriculture – Washington wants greater access to it but India fiercely protects it – are still sticking points.

In addition to trade, the two leaders also discussed cooperation in defence, strategic technologies and energy, Modi’s office said.

The Indian prime minister also said that he was looking forward to welcoming Trump to India this year. Delhi is hosting the Quad summit later this year and the US president is expected to attend it.

The bilateral meeting was followed by delegation-level talks and the dinner hosted by Modi.

Vance arrived in India on Monday, accompanied by his wife Usha and their three children. Usha Vance’s parents migrated to the US from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and some media reports have said that Vance and his wife are keen to introduce their children to their Indian heritage.

Photographs of the three children wearing Indian-style outfits – the two boys in kurta-pyjamas and three-year-old Mirabel wearing a lehenga – on their arrival in India were splashed across Indian newspapers and websites.

The rest of Vance’s visit is largely personal. After the meeting with Modi, the family left for Jaipur city, where they visited the historic Amer Fort on Tuesday. Vance is also expected to deliver a speech on US-India relations in Jaipur.

The family is also set to visit the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra city on Wednesday before flying to the US the next day.

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