US vice president says Trump-Modi meetings ‘historic and productive’

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs U.S. President Donald Trump as they give joint statements in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, June 26, 2017.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday hailed a first meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “historic and productive” and said Trump recognizes U.S. ties with India as “one of the most important strategic relationships in the 21st century.”

Addressing the U.S. Indian Business Council a day after Trump’s first meeting with Modi in Washington, Pence stressed that India must continue to enact economic reforms to ensure the bilateral trade relationship was reciprocal.