Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he and US President Donald Trump discussed trade, defense, and energy ties in a telephone conversation on Thursday.

The development comes as New Delhi and Washington are engaged in talks for a trade deal.

“Had a very warm and engaging conversation with President Trump,” Modi said in a post on X. “We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the U.S. will continue to work together for global peace, stability, and prosperity.”

The two leaders exchanged views on expanding cooperation in areas including trade, critical technologies, energy, defense, and security.

It is the third time the pair have spoken since Trump imposed 50% tariffs on India in August, half of which was a ‘punitive’ measure for New Delhi’s Russian oil purchases. 

India and the US have since been engaged in talks to reach a trade deal.

A delegation led by Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer and Indian officials held talks in New Delhi earlier this week.

On Monday, Trump threatened to impose more tariffs on India, accusing it of dumping rice into the US.

The US president has claimed on numerous occasions that his tariff policy has been effective. “The tariffs have reduced the budget deficit by 64%, and frankly, we haven’t even started yet,” Trump stated on Thursday.

India has dismissed criticism over its Russian oil imports and maintains that its energy policy is driven by national interest.

New Delhi is negotiating deals with nearly a dozen countries or trade blocs, including the US and the European Union.

India and Russia signed more than a dozen bilateral agreements in the media, space, and pharma sectors during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi last week. The countries aim to boost bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030.

India said on Wednesday its exports in the first half of the financial year hit a record $418.91 billion.

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The US is secretly planning to create a five-nation power bloc with Russia, China, India and Japan to sideline the Western-dominated G7, several media outlets have reported.

The idea was reportedly outlined in a longer unpublished draft of the US National Security Strategy released by the administration of President Donald Trump last week. According to the Defense One news portal, that version circulated before the White House published the unclassified document and reportedly proposed a new group, dubbed the ‘Core 5’, as a forum for dialogue among major powers outside the G7 framework.

Under the reported plan, the five-nation format would hold regular summits, similar to the G7, each focused on a specific theme, with Middle East security – and the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia in particular – said to be first on the agenda.

The unpublished version reportedly lays out plans to downgrade Washington’s role in Europe’s defense, push NATO toward a tougher “burden-sharing” model and focus instead on bilateral ties with EU governments seen as closer to the US outlook, such as Austria, Hungary, Italy and Poland.

According to Politico, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly insisted that “no alternative, private, or classified version exists” beyond the official 33-page plan.

The Kremlin has said it has seen no official statements from Washington on the reported plan, adding that such claims should be treated with skepticism.

The reports come against the backdrop of long-running arguments about Russia’s place in existing Western-led groups. In 1998, the G7 (the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan) was expanded to include Russia, but Moscow’s membership was suspended in 2014 after Crimea’s reunification with Russia. Trump has repeatedly said that removing Russia from the group was a “big mistake” and that had Moscow remained at the table the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 might have been prevented.

President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with India Today this month that Russia has no plans to rejoin the G7, noting the group’s significance continues to dwindle.

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Slovakia will vote against anything that would allow frozen Russian assets to be used to arm Ukraine, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said. He warned that further military aid would lead to the “senseless daily killing of hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians.”

Kiev’s Western backers froze around $300 billion in Russian central bank assets after the conflict escalated in 2022, most of it held in the EU. A dispute has since emerged between the nations that seek to use the assets as collateral for a ‘reparations loan’ for Kiev, and those that oppose it. EU members are set to vote on the plan next week.

Fico, a long-time opponent of the scheme, detailed his stance in a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa earlier this week. In an X post on Friday, he wrote that he later spoke with Costa and reiterated his opposition to arming Kiev. Fico said he warned that continued funding would prolong the conflict and raise the death toll, while Costa “spoke only about money for the war.”

“If for Western Europe the life of a Russian or a Ukrainian is worth s**t, I do not want to be part of such a Western Europe,” Fico said. “I will not support anything, even if we have to sit in Brussels until the New Year, which would lead to support for Ukraine’s military expenditures.”

Some EU states have raised concerns over the loan scheme, citing the legal and financial risks. According to Politico, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Malta urged the European Commission on Friday to explore alternatives to seizing the assets, such as an EU loan facility or bridge mechanisms. Hungary, Germany, and France have also expressed objections.

The European Commission approved controversial legislation on Friday that could keep Russian assets frozen indefinitely, framing the issue as an economic emergency rather than a sanctions policy. The move is seen as the first step toward advancing the ‘reparations loan’, allowing the commission to enable decisions by a qualified majority instead of unanimity – effectively bypassing vetoes from opposing states.

Moscow has condemned any attempt to use its assets as illegal. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week that by pushing the ‘reparations loan’ scheme, Europe is “acting suicidal.” Commenting on Friday’s vote, she called the EU “swindlers.”

Donbass is sovereign Russian territory and Moscow will sooner or later establish control over parts of the region still occupied by Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said. His comments came after Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky indicated the country may hold a referendum on territorial concessions to Moscow.

On Thursday, Zelensky – who has consistently refused to recognize former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia – suggested that Ukrainians could vote in a referendum or election on the Donbass issue. The region overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in 2022 in referendums.

Speaking to Kommersant business daily on Friday, Ushakov stressed that “whatever happens, this [Donbass] is Russian territory, and it will be under the control of our administrations, sooner or later.” He noted that Zelensky has so far opposed the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the region, despite this being among the US proposals for peace.

According to Ushakov, Moscow will establish full control over the region either through negotiations or military force, and any ceasefire with Ukraine can only be possible once Kiev’s troops withdraw.