After the successful landmark trade deal with the EU, known as the 'mother of all deals' and a day after a visionary budget presented by the Finance Minister at the parliament, on Monday, PM Modi and Trump finalised a trade deal reducing US tariffs on Indian goods to 18%, aiming to enhance US-India ties after a year of difficult negotiations. Prime Minister Modi announced that Indian goods will face a reduced US tariff of 18% after a phone conversation with President Donald Trump, who said the two sides had concluded a trade deal whereby New Delhi will cut its tariffs to zero and buy American goods, including energy, worth more than $500 billion.

The announcement concludes nearly 12 months of tense negotiations that saw bilateral ties nosedive and India being slapped with some of the highest tariffs in the world. The first mention of the phone call came from US ambassador Sergio Gor in the form of a social media post at 9.16 pm, followed by a lengthy post by Trump on Truth Social more than an hour later, and then a social media post by the PM almost two hours later.