india

Updated: May 26, 2020 21:36 IST

US President Donald Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘deserved his landslide victory’ in the recently held general elections as he ‘did a great job pulling everyone together.”

The compliments came in a pre-bilateral address to the media, where the US president and the Indian Prime Minister exchanged greetings before laying out the agenda for the meet.

The US president also termed the magnitude of the ruling coalition’s victory as ‘very big’. “72% as I understand, and that in United States will be called a very big victory,” He said.

The BJP won 303 of the 353 seats won by the NDA out of a total of 542 seats for which elections were held. NDA’s win percentage was just over 65 %.

Trump went on to say that the electoral win was a tribute to PM Modi and his abilities to unite ‘factions’. “You had many factions as I remember, when you first took over and they were fighting with each other and now they all get along, you just, really brought it together and I think It is a fantastic tribute to you and your abilities,” he said.

Also read: PM Modi, US President Donald Trump hold talks; discuss Iran, trade, defence, 5G

Acknowledging that the two countries had “become great friends” Trump said they “have never been closer”, while singling out military cooperation between India and the US. The two countries “should work together on trade and we will be discussing trade today”, he added, in the backdrop of tensions over tariff between the two countries.

Prime Minister Modi was the first to offer his greetings to the US president. He thanked Trump for his congratulatory call post results. Prime Minister also thanked him for his “very warm” letter delivered by US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo during his India-visit earlier this week.

Trump on his part thanked PM Modi while acknowledging the “friendship”. “Thank you very much for the relationship and the friendship and I think we are going to have some very big things to announce, some very big trade deals, some very big things with India in terms of trade, in terms of manufacturing…”, Trump said.

Here’s the full quote from the US President while in conversation with PM Modi before the bilateral.

“You did indeed have a landslide election, that was a great election, 72% as I understand and that in United States will be called very big victory. You deserve it, you did a great job, pulling everybody together, you had many factions as I remember when you first took over and they were fighting with each other and now they all get along, you just, really brought it together and I think It is a fantastic tribute to you and your abilities, Thank you very much for the relationship and the friendship and I think we are going to have some very big things to announce, some very big trade deals, some very big things with India in terms of trade, in terms of manufacturing… We will be discussing 5G, big subject nowadays and everything to do with like-manner...”