Amid the ongoing negotiations between India and the United States for a trade deal, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Friday indicated a high degree of urgency in India’s approach towards the talks keeping in mind the fact that the Trump administration is fundamentally changing America’s approach in engaging with the world.

In his keynote address at the Carnegie Global Technology Summit here, he acknowledged that the trade talks with the US for a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) would be challenging since the US is very ambitious and the global landscape is very different from what it was a year ago.

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“This time around, we are certainly geared up for a very high degree of urgency…we see a window. So our trade deals are really challenging. And when it comes to trade deals, we have a lot to do with each other. I mean these are people very much on top of their game, very ambitious about what they want to achieve,” Mr Jaishankar said, alluding to the US trade negotiators.

The minister also said that just as the US has a view of India, India, too, has a view of that country. “We did four years of talking in the first Trump administration. They have their view of us and frankly we have our view of them,” he said.

He said technology has emerged as a central driver of how the US engages with the world over the past year. There is a connect, he said, between US President Donald Trump’s agenda–MAGA (Make America Great Again)–and technology, which has become clear now.

“The US has fundamentally changed its approach to engaging the world, and it has consequences across every domain but the tech consequences, I believe, would be particularly profound, and it will be profound not just because the US is the largest economy, the main driver, in a way, of global tech advancements, but also because it’s very clear that Tech has a big role in making America great again. So there is a connection between MAGA and tech, which perhaps was not so clear between 2016 and 2020,” Mr Jaishankar said.

Apart from the US, China has also advanced in the past year, he said. “The changes in the United States, which all of you are as familiar if not more than I, I think are one big shift in the last year. But there’s the other shift, and that’s an evolution, you can say. It’s something which appears, even if it is not, more of an unfolding rather than dramatic events. And that is the advancement of China,” he said.

“Five years ago, I think Europe probably had the best geopolitical situation. It had worked out the ideal triangulation between the United States, Russia, and China. Today, every side of that triangle is under stress,” he added.

Referring to the summit’s theme, Mr Jaishankar jocularly remarked that in addition to the obvious ‘T’ word (technology), they were at the conference to discuss the other ‘T’ word (tariffs).

“We have gathered here today to discuss the other ‘T’ word. And I do want you to reflect on the connection between the first T and the second T. But we also are gathered in a very changed landscape from what it was just a year ago,” he said.