US President Donald Trump said the United States and India are “getting very close” to reaching a trade deal that has been under discussion for more than a year.
In remarks to Bloomberg at the White House, Trump said the agreement “could be a very different kind of deal,” suggesting it may differ from previous trade agreements between the two countries.
“They want to make a deal, and we’re going to make a deal, we’re very close to it,” he said.
Trump’s remarks come as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on a three-day official visit to India, widely seen as an effort by Washington to repair bilateral ties amid tensions over visa restrictions and threats to impose tariffs.
Seeking to ease concerns, Rubio said on Tuesday that tariffs were not intended to “punish India” and that visa restrictions were not specifically “targeting” the country.
Rubio told Indian media that India had made “significant progress” in diversifying its oil supplies, adding that a trade deal with New Delhi was “very close.”
“I think we’re very close. You could say we’re weeks away, not months, from getting this deal done, i think 99% of the work has already been done, we just have that last bit to get to 100%, but I’m very optimistic about the direction things are going,” he said.
