New Delhi: India on Friday rejected as “inaccurate” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s remarks that a proposed trade deal between the two countries could not be sealed last year, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not make a telephone call to President Donald Trump.
New Delhi also asserted that it remained interested in concluding a “mutually beneficial” trade deal between the two “complementary economies” and noted that Modi and Trump held phone conversations on eight occasions in 2025, covering different aspects of ties.
Negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between the two sides hit a major roadblock after Trump slapped a whopping 50% tariff on India, including a 25% additional duty for its purchase of Russian crude oil.
Lutnick told a podcast that India had been given “three Fridays” to seal the trade agreement, and that Modi had to call Trump to close it.
The fresh row between the two sides comes as their relations pass through possibly the worst phase in the last two decades.
In his controversial comments in an interview on Thursday, Lutnick detailed how the India-US trade deal has not happened till now.
The decision to negotiate the trade deal was taken at a meeting between PM Modi and President Trump at the White House on February 13. “We have seen the remarks. India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the US as far back as February 13 last year,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement,” he said at his weekly media briefing.
The MEA spokesperson also said, “On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”
Jaiswal said India remained interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies, and it is looking forward to concluding it.
“Incidentally, the Prime Minister and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” he said.
People familiar with the matter said no occasion had come in the course of last year when one single phone call could have helped seal the trade pact.
In his comments, Lutnick said India and the US were pretty close to firming up the trade pact, as he elaborated on negotiations for a similar deal with the UK. He recalled that after the UK deal, everyone asked Trump which country would be the next, and the president talked about several countries, but he named “India a couple of times publicly”.
