Washington:
The proposed India-US trade agreement is in its “last one or 2 per cent”, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said on Monday, as senior American and Indian officials projected growing confidence in one of Washington’s most consequential strategic partnerships, highlighting expanding cooperation in trade, technology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors and defence.
Speaking at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Leadership Summit in Washington, Gor said negotiators from both countries were in the final stages of concluding the long-awaited bilateral trade agreement.
“Most of this deal is complete. There are a few items that remain from both sides, but it’s in the last one or 2 per cent of that deal,” Gor said.
He said both governments had intensified negotiations over the past few weeks and described the agreement as “a win-win situation” that would bring greater certainty to businesses trading between the two countries.
“As I mentioned, the trade deal — we’re close to getting it done… pretty much the last three weeks we’ve had travels back and forth,” he said.
Rejecting suggestions that bilateral ties had weakened, Gor said the partnership was stronger than critics acknowledged.
“So to all those pundits that sit online and tweet and say this relationship is in trouble, when you look at the facts of where this relationship stands, whether it’s trade, whether it’s defence, or whether it’s the people-to-people ties, the relationship is on strong footing,” he said.
He also announced that the Quad foreign ministers were expected to meet in the Philippines in about two weeks before holding another ministerial meeting in Australia, with preparations also underway for a future Quad leaders’ summit that would include President Donald Trump visiting India.
