NEW DELHI, India — India on Friday rejected comments 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 President Donald Trump, saying the characterization of the talks was inaccurate and misleading.
“The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to Lutnick’s comments. “India remains interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and looks forward to concluding it.”
Lutnick had said on Thursday that progress on a trade agreement faltered after President Trump did not receive a call from Modi, adding that Washington subsequently moved ahead with trade deals with other countries.
Jaiswal said India and the United States have been engaged in trade negotiations for nearly a year and have made sustained efforts to reach an agreement. “India and the United States were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US 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.
He added that the talks have, on several occasions, come close to completion.
“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,” Jaiswal said, countering the suggestion that a lack of communication between the two leaders had derailed the process.
Lutnick claimed he had asked Prime Minister Modi to call President Trump to finalize the deal, but said India was “uncomfortable doing it, so Mr Modi didn’t call.” He also said the U.S. had concluded trade agreements with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, despite initially expecting India’s deal to be finalized 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,” Lutnick said. He added that the deals were concluded at higher rates, and when India later indicated readiness to move forward, the terms had effectively changed.
Indian officials, however, maintained that negotiations have been ongoing and that New Delhi remains committed to concluding a fair and balanced trade agreement with Washington. (Source: IANS)
