US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that India and the United States are close to finalising a trade agreement, stating that negotiations have made significant progress as both countries work toward reshaping their trade relationship.
Speaking at a joint press conference in New Delhi alongside External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Rubio said the India-US partnership remains firmly on track and rejected suggestions that momentum in bilateral ties had slowed.
“The US-India relationship has not lost any momentum,” Rubio said. He clarified that the US administration’s trade push is part of a broader effort to review America’s trade arrangements globally, rather than a move specifically directed at India.
According to Rubio, President Donald Trump’s approach is aimed at addressing structural trade imbalances affecting the US economy.
“The President did not say ‘Let’s figure out a way to create friction with India over trade.’ The President came in and said, ‘We have a trade situation involving the US economy that doesn’t work moving forward. There’s a huge imbalance that’s built up, and it needs to be addressed,’” Rubio said.
He added that trade has become a recurring issue in nearly every bilateral conversation the US is having worldwide because of this broader policy approach. Highlighting India’s economic importance, Rubio described the country as one of America’s major trade partners and a critical economy in the global trade landscape.
“The difference is that India is a massive economy. This is a big economy where you’re the leading trade partner. We do a lot of trade with India,” he said.
Rubio said Washington is hopeful of reaching a durable agreement that serves the interests of both countries. “And one of those we hope will be India. In fact, we are on the verge of making that happen,” he said, adding that a visit by the US trade representative to India is expected soon.
He noted that an Indian delegation had recently visited the United States and said those discussions resulted in substantial progress.
“We’ve made tremendous progress and I think we’re going to wind up with a trade agreement between the United States and India that’s going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides,” Rubio said.
India and the United States had announced in February this year that they had agreed on a framework for an interim trade agreement based on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade principles.
That framework also reaffirmed both countries’ commitment to broader negotiations under the proposed US-India Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which was launched by President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 13, 2025.
The broader agreement is expected to include expanded market access commitments and measures to strengthen supply chain resilience between the two economies. Beyond trade, Rubio said India and the United States continue to deepen strategic cooperation across multiple sectors.
He cited India’s early participation in the Pax Silica initiative launched by the US State Department as an example of growing collaboration beyond economic ties.
