‘Fantastic tribute to your abilities’, Trump to PM Modi for another term: 10 points

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held bilateral talks with US President Donald Trump and discussed a host of key issues including trade, defence and 5G communications networks. The meeting was held ahead of the formal opening of the G-20 Summit. This was Modi’s first meeting with Trump after the BJP’s landslide win in the parliamentary election.

The two leaders met shortly after the Japan-America-India trilateral meeting during which Modi highlighted “the importance India attaches to” the grouping. The Modi-Trump meeting assumes significance as the US president, championing his ‘America First’ policy, has been a vocal critic of India for levying “tremendously high” duties on US products.

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Before his arrival in Japan on Thursday, Trump tweeted, “I look forward to speaking with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi about the fact that India, for years having put very high Tariffs against the United States, just recently increased the Tariffs even further. This is unacceptable and the Tariffs must be withdrawn!”

G20 Summit: PM Modi-Donald Trump meeting, key takeaways

• You deserve it (victory). You have done a great job in pulling together. I remember when you first took over, there were many factions and they were fighting with each other and now they get along. It's a fantastic tribute to you and your abilities: Donald Trump to PM Modi.
• Trump said that India-US ties had never been closer setting the stage for the interaction that Gokhale described as “open", “productive" and “warm."
• On Iran, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said Modi had outlined India’s energy concerns as well as concerns regarding peace and stability in the region.
• PM Modi pointed out that India had a large number of its citizens in the region besides economic interests there and “therefore it’s in India’s fundamental interests to have peace and stability in the region."
• PM Modi thanked the US President for expressing his "love towards India" in a letter recently delivered by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
• Taking to Twitter later, PM Modi said, “The talks with the US President were wide-ranging. We discussed ways to leverage the power of technology, improve defence and security ties as well as issues relating to trade. India stands committed to further deepen economic and cultural relations with USA.”
• Trump said the two countries will focus on trade during talks today. “We have become great friends and our countries have never been closer. I can say that with surety. We’ll work together in many ways including military, we’ll be discussing trade today,” he said.
• “The prime minister outlined that we are going to be a billion users of this technology and in that sense,  India is the second largest market in the world. The way India moves, whatever choices India makes essentially determines the way the global trend will go," Gokhale said.
• “The billion Indian users and India’s capacity in technology development and start ups and design and Silicon Valley and its role in development of 5G technology for mutual benefit" was discussed, Gokhale said.
• According to Gokhale, the prime minister referred to the withdrawal of special export privileges accorded by the US. “Something that had already happened and that we should now look forward and see how we can resolve some of the issues."

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