Union minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday urged for trust in India, a day after the Ministry of External Affairs firmly rejected speculation that the India-US trade agreement failed to materialise because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not place a phone call to US President Donald Trump.
Responding to a question on United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's comment that negotiations with India failed while Washington moved ahead with with other countries, Goyal said at NDTV Power Play, "Trust your country, your motherland, not foreign statements".
Goyal also said that intricacies of a trade deal will be discussed behind closed doors and not in front of the media. Lutnick said Trump viewed trade deals "like a staircase", arguing that countries that moved first received better terms. "The first stair gets the best deal. You can't get the best deal after the first guy," he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs described the characterisation of the negotiations as "not accurate", stressing that New Delhi and Washington have been engaged in sustained and detailed talks on a bilateral trade pact for well over a year. "Incidentally, Prime Minister (Modi) and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership," the ministry's spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal added.
Speaking during the conclave in Mumbai ahead of the civic body polls on January 15, Goyal added that said that nobody is an outsider in the city, countering the opposition's 'Marathi Manoos' narrative.
Speaking to NDTV's CEO and Editor-in-Chief, Rahul Kanwal, Managing Editor, Padmaja Joshi, and Associate Editor Puja Bhardwaj, Goyal said several infrastructure projects are being executed to combat the city's traffic troubles. "The people of Mumbai are willing to suffer short-term pain for long-term gain," he said, saying this is a futuristic vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Goyal claimed that veteran politician and NCP chied Sharad Pawar and his daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule regret their decision to join the opposition front against the BJP and are now trying a course correction by coming together with Ajit Pawar for the Pimpri Chinchwad municipal corporation election.
