New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs Thursday said trade negotiations between India and the US were still ongoing even as an Indian team led by Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal recently met with his American counterpart, Howard Lutnick, twice in a week.
At a regular press briefing, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “The India-US trade agreement negotiations are going on. We just had a team visiting the United States. So we will have to wait for the negotiations to come to a conclusion. And as we have an update, we will share it with you. But this is an ongoing matter, so you will have to bear with us.”
In this regard, Goyal met Lutnick twice in the six days between 17 and 23 May.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump first announced the India-US trade negotiations towards a deal during Modi’s visit to Washington, DC, in February this year. Since then, multiple rounds of talks have been held.
The deal has become increasingly crucial to India-US relations ahead of the 8 July 8 deadline for Trump’s “reciprocal trade tariffs” to kick in.
Indian exporters are likely to face some of the highest tariffs, as India maintains a goods trade surplus of around $30 billion with the US. Trump has also increasingly pushed for American businesses to build in the US, calling on Apple a few weeks ago to stop producing goods in India for the domestic market.
Separately, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has been in the US between 27 and 29 May.
On Wednesday, he met with Jeffrey Kessler, the US undersecretary, to “advance cooperation” in critical and emerging technologies.
“He [Misri] also led our delegation comprising the Deputy NSA for the inter-agency discussions on India-US COMPACT for the 21st century. This meeting happened in the White House, discussions at the White House, and it focused on implementing the trust initiatives, which again is about critical minerals and critical and emerging technology partnerships,” Jaiswal said.
The inter-agency discussions also touched upon cooperation in areas of defence and energy, as well as strengthening various multilateral initiatives such as the Quad, IMEC and I2U2. Misri also met with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
“They discussed all aspects of the India-U.S. relationship. In particular, they agreed that technology, tech, trade and talent will shape the India-US partnership in the 21st century, and they both reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the India-U.S. comprehensive global strategic partnership,” said Jaiswal.
On student visas & India-Pak cessation of hostilities
On the issue of student visas, Jaiswal said, “While we note that issuance of visas is a sovereign function, we hope that the application of Indian students will be considered on merit and they will be able to join their academic programmes on time.”
Media reports this week have said that the US State Department has halted the visa interview process for students as it institutes a procedure to vet applicants’ social media presence. Indians make up one of the largest student communities in the US with roughly 330,000 students in the US for the year 2023-2024, according to MEA data.
The MEA spokesperson also reiterated that no talks on trade had been held between officials of India and the US during Operation Sindoor. This came hours after the US government told a court Wednesday that it had used the offer of expanding trade and the threat of tariffs to bring a “ceasefire” in the flare-up between India and Pakistan earlier this month.
“From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on 7th May till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on 10th May, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade or tariff did not come up in any of those discussions,” said Jaiswal.
India has previously denied that the US played a role in the cessation of hostilities, maintaining that it was a bilateral understanding, arrived at by the militaries of India and Pakistan.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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