White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday said that India was willing to hold negotiations with the United States on tariffs, CNBC reported.

“India is coming to the table,” Navarro said in an interview with the American news network. “Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi sent out a very conciliatory, nice, constructive tweet…and President [Donald] Trump responded to that. We’ll see how this works.”

On September 9, Trump said he was looking forward to speaking with Modi about trade in the coming weeks. Hours later, the Indian prime minister expressed confidence that the trade negotiations would “pave the way for unlocking the limitless potential” of the partnership between the two countries.

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The two leaders made the statements in the backdrop of strained ties between New Delhi and Washington, mainly because of Trump having imposed so-called reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods and punitive levies for purchasing Russian oil amid the Ukraine war.

On Tuesday, a trade team from the United States, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, is expected to hold talks with Indian commerce ministry officials for a trade deal, The Indian Express reported.

Negotiators from India and the US had completed a fifth round of trade talks in Washington in July. However, talks between the two countries had subsequently been stalled after the United States’ 25% “reciprocal” tariffs took effect on August 7, and an additional punitive levy of 25% took effect on August 27.

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Navarro, in the interview with CNBC on Sunday, reiterated the US administration’s claim that India has the highest tariffs on American goods among major countries. “They have very high non-tariff barriers,” the White House adviser said. “We had to deal with that, like we’re dealing with every other country that does that.”

The White House adviser also repeated his claim that India significantly increased its oil imports from Russia after the war in Ukraine began.

Navarro also referred to Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on August 31 and September 1.

“Watching Modi on a stage with China, which has been its long-time existential threat… and Putin [Russian President Vladimir Putin], that was an interesting stretch,” he told CNBC. “I don’t think he felt comfortable doing it.”