United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed confidence in securing a good trade deal with India and called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "great friend" and a "fantastic leader." Asked about the India-US trade deal by a Moneycontrol reporter, Trump said: "I have great respect for your prime minister. Earlier, India's Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal had asserted that the much-anticipated first tranche of the India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA) was "very near", but stopped short of providing a timeline. That is, since then, two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement." A key aide of Trump recently said that Trump was in favour of raising tariffs on India and several other countries to a whopping 500 percent.

Source: dna January 21, 2026 23:24 UTC