NEW DELHI, India — India on Friday pushed back against remarks by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggesting that India-U.S. trade negotiations stalled because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not personally reach out to U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the characterization was inaccurate and reaffirming New Delhi’s interest in concluding a bilateral trade agreement.
“The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. “India remains interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and looks forward to concluding it.”
Lutnick said on Thursday that trade talks with India failed to progress after President Trump did not receive a call from Prime Minister Modi on the issue, adding that Washington subsequently moved ahead with agreements with other countries.
Responding to the comments, Jaiswal said India and the United States had been committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement since February 13 last year and had held multiple rounds of talks aimed at reaching a balanced outcome.
“We have seen the remarks. India and the United States were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. as far back as 13th of February last year. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to reach a balanced, mutually beneficial trade agreement,” he said.
Jaiswal added that the two sides had come close to finalizing a deal on several occasions and rejected the suggestion that communication at the highest political level had been lacking.
“Incidentally, the Prime Minister and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions in 2025, covering various aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” he said.
According to Lutnick, he had asked Prime Minister Modi to call President Trump to close the trade deal, but claimed India was “uncomfortable doing it, so Mr Modi didn’t call.”
The Commerce Secretary also said the United States went ahead with trade agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, even though Washington had expected a deal with India to be completed earlier.
“We did Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and we announced a whole bunch of deals. So we did this whole bunch of deals because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them. I have negotiated them at a higher rate. So now the problem is that the deals came out at a higher rate. And then India calls back and says, ‘Oh, okay, we are ready’. I said, ‘Ready for what?’” Lutnick said.
India’s foreign ministry reiterated that New Delhi remains keen to conclude a fair and mutually beneficial trade agreement with the United States, signaling that negotiations remain alive despite the public exchange. (Source: IANS)
