India continues to remain engaged with US on trade deal: MEA

India continues to remain engaged with the US side to conclude a trade deal, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

Responding to a question on India-US trade talks while addressing his weekly media briefing in New Delhi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We continue to remain engaged with the US side to conclude a trade deal, and these discussions are continuing…”

Advertisement

US President Donald Trump, who was of late seen softening his stand on India after imposing a 25 per cent “reciprocal tariff” and another 25 per cent as penalty for buying Russian oil, said on Wednesday that he was going to do a “trade deal with India”.

This is the first time that the US president openly laid bare his thoughts on the resumption of negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement with New Delhi. “I’m doing a trade deal with India and I have great respect and love… as you know… for Prime Minister Narendra Modi… we have a great relationship,” he said in South Korea’s Gyeongju, where he landed from Japan as part of his three-nation tour that included Malaysia.

Trump paid eulogies to Prime Minister Modi, calling him “the nicest looking guy… He looks like you’d like to have your father like…”