As India and the US continue to engage in trade negotiations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a phone call with his “good friend” President Donald Trump on Thursday (December 11, 2025). Both the leaders discussed trade, defence and security, along with reviewing the progress in the India-US bilateral relations.
PM Modi’s phone call with US President Trump comes at a time when a delegation from the United States, headed by Deputy US Trade Representative (USTR) Rick Switzer, is in the national capital for a two-day trade discussion with his Indian counterpart Rajesh Agrawal. India and the US have held five rounds of trade negotiations so far.
PM Modi and Trump’s latest phone call comes around two months after their last, during which the latter extended Diwali greetings. The Prime Minister thanked Trump for the phone call and “warm Diwali greetings”, and shared they stand united against terrorism in all its forms.
PM Modi-Trump call: What was discussed?
On Thursday (December 11, 2025), the world leaders reviewed the progress in India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and exchanged views on expanding cooperation in trade, critical technologies, energy, defence and security. PM Modi and US President Trump also agreed to work closely to address shared challenges and advance common interests.
As India and the US continue to engage and work towards chalking out the highly anticipated trade deal, PM Modi and Donald Trump expressed satisfaction at the steady strengthening of bilateral cooperation across all domains. They underlined the importance of sustaining momentum in shared efforts to enhance bilateral trade.
The leaders also exchanged views on expanding cooperation in critical technologies, energy, defence and security, and other priority areas that are central to the implementation of the India–US COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st century.
What is India-US COMPACT?
Announced earlier this year in February, US President Trump and PM Modi launched the US-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century, to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation.
Under this initiative, they committed to a results-driven agenda with initial outcomes this year to demonstrate the level of trust for a mutually beneficial partnership.
Did PM Modi and Trump talked about the trade deal?
While there was no specific mention if the leaders discussed the much awaited India-US trade deal, the statement said that PM Modi and Trump talked about various regional and global developments and agreed to work closely to address shared challenges and advance common interests.
They also agreed to remain in touch.
Meanwhile, India and the US appear closer than ever to clinching a long-awaited bilateral trade agreement. What began as another round of routine discussions has now evolved into one of the most intense phases of engagement between the two countries in over a decade.
US trade teams arrived in the Indian capital on Tuesday (December 9, 2025), on which Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that the negotiations are going well and noted that a deal is only done when both sides stand to benefit. India and the US have had substantive discussions over several rounds of negotiations.