United States President Donald Trump has said that New Delhi and Washington are “pretty close” to finalising a trade deal, even as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in India on a three-day official visit.
So that’s one of the things we take into consideration when the President makes a decision about national security waivers and things of that nature,” Rubio said while speaking to reporters in Samarkand.
The US President further said it “could be a much different kind of deal”, but did not elaborate further. Ahead of his India visit as well, Rubio had in Uzbekistan said that Washington was “very close” to finalising a trade deal with India, adding that it was one of the things taken into consideration when making decisions on national security waivers. New Delhi and Washington had announced the framework for an interim trade agreement in February earlier this year.
“They want to make a deal. We’re going to make a deal. Trump’s remarks follow optimistic statements made by both Indian and US leaders in the recent past regarding the prospects of the trade deal. “We’re trying to finalise a trade deal with India right now. We’re very close to doing that.
Pretty close, yeah,” Bloomberg cited Trump as saying on Tuesday, while speaking to reporters at the White House.
