U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held meetings in India’s capital on Wednesday amid growing tensions over trade and tariffs that has strained the partners’ ties.
Pompeo called on India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday morning, and later was meeting his counterpart S. Jaishankar.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said Pompeo and Modi exchanged “views on various aspects of Indo-US relationship.”
“Working together to further deepen our strategic partnership,” Kumar tweeted.
Pompeo arrived in New Delhi late Tuesday after visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan on a trip aimed at building a global coalition to counter Iran.
His visit is the first high-level engagement between the two countries since Modi’s reelection last month. The countries call each other a strategic partner despite retaliatory tariffs they imposed on some of the other’s goods this month.
India imposed tariffs on 28 American products including walnuts and almonds on June 16 in retaliation for the U.S. ending India’s preferential trade status on June 1. The Trump administration imposed higher duties on products including aluminum and steel.
The visit also comes ahead of the scheduled meeting between President Donald Trump and Modi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 Summit in Japan later this week.
[To view the original article, click here]