US President Donald Trump's decision to lower reciprocal tariffs on India from 50% to 18% has been met with a sense of relief in Asia's third-largest economy, even as precise details on the agreement remain sketchy.
India paid the highest tariffs in the world after Trump raised import duties on Indian goods from 25% to 50% in August last year, saying Delhi's purchase of discounted Russian oil was helping fund Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.
After his call with India's prime minister on Monday, Trump claimed Narendra Modi had "agreed to stop buying Russian oil, and buy much more from the United States, and potentially Venezuela".
India has not commented on these exact claims, but Modi thanked Trump "on behalf of the 1.4 billion people of India for this wonderful announcement", saying he hoped to take the partnership with the US to "unprecedented heights".
The patch-up comes after Trump's trade war soured carefully cultivated relations between Washington and Delhi, with exports from India to the US falling sharply across key job-creating sectors such as textiles, seafood and jewellery.
