India Removed From Currency Monitoring List, Pompeo Calls It 'Great Ally'

President Donald Trump on Tuesday removed India from its currency monitoring list of major trading partners. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was looking forward to having a "robust discussion" with his Indian counterpart as India is a "great ally" and "partner" of Trump's government and that the administration will work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his second term on an array of problems.

“India has been removed from the monitoring list in this report, having met only 1 out of 3 criteria – a significant bilateral surplus with the U.S. for two consecutive reports," the Department of the Treasury said in its latest semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners of the U.S.

India was placed in the currency monitoring for countries with potentially questionable foreign exchange policies in May 2018.

"India's circumstances have shifted markedly, as the central bank's net sales of foreign exchange over the first six months of 2018 led net purchases over the four quarters through June 2018 to fall to $4 billion, or 0.2 per cent of the GDP," the Treasury had said in its October 2018 report.

India is set to become more important to U.S. companies soon as the U.S.-China trade war sees no sign of ending quickly. The U.S. would be looking ot ramp up trade with countries like India to mitigate any slowdown it could cause to the economy. Indian economy has grown stronger under Modi, making it the fastest growing larger economy in the world and on track to overtake the UK as the fight largest global economy this year.

Reports also say Pompeo may visit New Delhi next month on his way to Osaka, Japan, for the G20 summit.

Indian-Americans arranged victory celebrations in several parts of the U.S. after Narendra Modi's landslide wins in Indian elections that returned him to power a second time. Meanwhile, lawmakers and senior government officials took to Twitter to congratulate Modi on his electoral victory.

"India continues to have amazing potential and is a strong U.S. partner. Congratulations to Narendra Modi on your success with the elections and the direction you're taking India. We look forward to seeing our partnership continue to strengthen," tweeted Nikki Haley, who was Trump's ambassador to the United Nations.

"Prime Minister Modi has led India and has brought a lot of credibility in foreign affairs and made India a power to reckon with. He has travelled all the continents and made friends and has a given the prestige to India that was long overdue, India is a no more a third world country and has stood the test of time and has been recognised as one of the top six economies in the world. We do not want another impasse as we see with US-China trade and we do not want India to be another China," said Sampat Shivangi, president of Indian American Forum.