New Delhi, April 13: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday said India was showing an “urgent” willingness to move forward with a trade deal with the United States, noting that the momentum was now coming from New Delhi, not Washington.
Speaking at the Global Tech Summit hosted by the Ministry of External Affairs and Carnegie, Jaishankar remarked, “Normally, a complaint in the past which was made about us was that we are the guys slowing it down. Today, it’s the other way around. We are trying to communicate that urgency.”
The comments came just two days after US President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on imposing reciprocal tariffs. According to Jaishankar, India and the US have conceptually agreed to finalize a bilateral trade agreement by September or October. “We will find a fix which will work for both,” he added.
Jaishankar also warned that the world was hurtling toward economic instability, pointing to rising trade tensions between the US and China. “There is deep turmoil ahead, and we must be ready to safeguard our interests,” he said, stressing that India must be prepared to navigate the shifting global trade order.
The current push for a trade pact follows a February meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump in Washington, where the two leaders agreed to finalize the first tranche of a bilateral deal. Talks continued with a US delegation led by Assistant Trade Representative Brendan Lynch, who visited Delhi from March 26 to 29 to iron out key details.
Commenting on broader US-India dynamics, Jaishankar said the US had fundamentally shifted its global engagement strategy. “We did four years of talking in the first Trump administration. They have their view of us and frankly, we have our view of them,” he noted.
He also addressed the status of India’s trade talks with the European Union, pushing back against criticism that negotiations have dragged on for decades. “People often say that we’ve been negotiating for 30 years. This is not entirely true because we had big blocks of time and nobody was even talking to each other,” Jaishankar said. “Trade talks have tended to be very protracted processes.”
The minister also spoke on the evolving tech strategies of Asian economies, saying, “Japan particularly, and South Korea to some extent, have sought through the tech world means of a geopolitical comeback.” He added that China, too, was pursuing a similar trajectory.
Amid these global shifts, India was advancing its Digital Public Infrastructure and prioritizing semiconductor development. Jaishankar noted that the Global Tech Summit revealed India’s growing strength in technology. “You can see the technological side of the country in a positive way,” he said.
