External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar hinted that the the trade deal between India and the United States may be close while there is a lot of “give and take” involved in finalising the agreement.
The EAM also spoke about the US involvement in negotiating a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after Operation Sindoor, and shared if US President Donald Trump used trade to stop the conflict between the two countries.
In an exclusive chat with Newsweek in New York, Jaishankar spoke about the massive improvement in the relationship between India and the United States under the last five Presidents, over the course of 25 years. He further spoke about the US-India trade deal, which is being finalised by trade negotiators in the White House.
“We are in the middle, hopefully more than the middle, of a very intricate trade negotiation…we do think today that in trade, there will have to be some give and take. Just as people in the US have an opinion about India, Indians too have an opinion about the US. There will be some sort of middle ground, we just have to wait and watch the space for the next few days,” Jaishankar said at the Newsweek event.
While speaking about the Pahalgam terror attack and India’s Operation Sindoor, Jaishankar refuted Donald Trump’s claim of trade being used to negotiate a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“No, I don’t think so. I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiate with numbers and lines and products and do their trade-offs. I think they are very professional and very, very focused about it,” the EAM said while speaking about whether the conflict had an impact on trade negotiations between Delhi and Washington.
Speaking about US’ role in the ceasefire agreement, he said, “And in this particular case, I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President (JD) Vance spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi on the night of May 9, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things.”
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“And the Prime Minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do. On the contrary, he indicated that there would be a response from us. This was the night before and the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night, we responded very quickly thereafter,” Jaishankar said.
“And the next morning, Mr (Secretary of State Marco) Rubio called me up and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk. So I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened. The rest I leave to you,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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