India, Feb. 4 -- External affairs minister S Jaishankar met US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, where the two leaders "welcomed" the trade deal reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump and discussed steps to formalise bilateral cooperation on the exploration, mining and processing of critical minerals.

Rubio held one-on-one talks with Jaishankar at the state department ahead of the first critical minerals ministerial meeting being hosted by the US on Wednesday.

The two leaders held talks on "bilateral cooperation agenda" as well as regional and global issues, Jaishankar said.

In a post on X, EAM wrote, "A wide-ranging conversation that covered our bilateral cooperation agenda,...