Jaishankar emphasised the importance of an early understanding on the trade deal at a joint news conference with Rubio

India and the US are looking to the early conclusion of an interim trade agreement, with an American delegation expected to travel to New Delhi soon to take forward the process and reach an understanding that serves the national interests of both sides, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his US counterpart Marco Rubio said on Sunday.

There have been few signs of forward movement since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump announced on February 2 that the two sides were close to a trade deal, including the slashing of American tariffs on Indian exports. Though the Trump administration’s attention has been occupied by the West Asia crisis, India and the US have continued talks to conclude a trade deal.

Jaishankar emphasised the importance of an early understanding on the trade deal at a joint news conference with Rubio, and expressed the hope that a US team will come to India soon to move the process along. “On the economic front, we spoke about the value of concluding, at an early date, the final text of the interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade,” Jaishankar said.

This, he said, will be an important step towards a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement, as envisaged during Modi’s talks with Trump during a visit to Washington in February 2025. “We had a team recently in Washington and our expectation is that an American team will be visiting India soon for that purpose,” he said.

Rubio added: “We are hopeful that our Trade Representative can visit here very soon. We had an Indian delegation in the US…We’ve made tremendous progress. I think we’re going to wind up with a trade agreement between the US and India that’s going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides. and sustainable in a way that addresses this national interest that we have.”

Both sides didn’t provide a specific timeline for finalising the interim trade agreement, though Rubio sought to paper over the differences created by Trump’s tariff policies. India-US relations nosedived when Trump hit Indian exports with 50% tariffs, including a 25% levy over Russian energy purchases.

“This is not about India, this is about the US in terms of trade. The President did not say, let’s figure out a way to create friction with India over trade,” Rubio said, contending that Trump’s actions were aimed at addressing the US’s trade imbalance “from a global perspective” and bringing back manufacturing to the US. “There needed to be a rebalancing of how we approach global trade, not just with India, with the European Union, with countries all over the world,” he said.