Modi, Trump vow to work together to boost India-US bilateral ties in 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump have agreed to further boost New Delhi-Washington bilateral ties while taking a positive note on cooperation across various sectors, the External Affairs Ministry said on Tuesday. According to a Ministry statement, the two leaders exchanged New Year greetings in a telephonic conversation on Monday evening.

"They expressed satisfaction at the progress in India-US strategic partnership in 2018," the statement said. "They appreciated developments such as the launch of the new 2+2 Dialogue mechanism and the first-ever trilateral summit of India, the US and Japan." Modi, Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on the idelines of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires last November.

The three countries along with Australia, are part of a quad that was revived in 2017 seeking to work for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. The Ministry statement said that Modi and Trump also "took positive note of growing bilateral cooperation in defence, counter-terrorism and energy and coordination on regional and global issues". "They agreed to continue to work together for further strengthening India-US bilateral relations in 2019."