India and the United States are looking to finalise a long-pending bilateral trade agreement soon, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, asserting that the proposed deal would be “beneficial” and “sustainable” for both countries while advancing their mutual interests.
Rubio made the remarks after holding wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi, where the two sides discussed trade, critical minerals, energy, defence cooperation and regional security issues.
“We've made tremendous progress, and I think we're going to wind up with a trade agreement between the US and India that is going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides and sustainable in a way that addresses national interests that we have,” Rubio said during a joint media briefing.
Rubio, who is on a four-day visit to India, also sought to defend the Donald Trump administration’s approach to global trade and tariffs, saying Washington’s trade recalibration was not aimed at any one country, including India.
“This is about the United States in terms of trade. The President did not say: ‘Let's figure out a way to create friction with India over trade’,” Rubio said.
“The President came in and said: ‘We have a trade situation involving the US economy that doesn't work moving forward.’ There's a huge imbalance that's built up, and it needs to be addressed,” he added.
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The US Secretary of State said the issue of trade imbalance had figured in discussions with several countries and was part of a broader global trade reset being pursued by Washington.
“This is not about India,” Rubio said, adding that the US also had trade-related concerns with allies such as the European Union.
He, however, underlined India’s growing economic importance and described it as a major trade partner for the US.
“The difference is that India is a massive economy. This is a big economy where you're the leading trade partner. We do a lot of trade with India,” he said.
Rubio also said a US trade delegation would visit India “very soon” to take forward negotiations on the proposed agreement.
“The good news is that through this rebalancing, we are ultimately seeking and believe we will arrive at trade arrangements around the world that are good for the United States, but also good for our trade partners,” he said.
Rubio’s visit comes amid efforts by both countries to stabilise ties that had come under strain over tariff-related disagreements and trade policy issues over the past year.
Jaishankar, meanwhile, said the discussions covered energy cooperation, strategic technologies and supply chain resilience, besides regional and global developments.
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