- India rejected US Commerce Secretary's claim about PM Modi not calling Trump on trade talks
- MEA said India-US have engaged in detailed trade negotiations for over a year
- Both countries committed to a trade pact since February 13 last year
India has firmly rejected remarks by the United States Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, suggesting that a long-discussed India-US trade agreement failed to materialise because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not place a phone call to US President Donald Trump.
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.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the two sides had committed themselves to negotiating a trade agreement as early as February 13 last year, and had since held multiple rounds of negotiations aimed at reaching a mutually beneficial outcome.
"We have seen the remarks. India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13 last year," he said. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate."
"We remain interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and look forward to concluding it," Jaiswal added.
He also pushed back against any suggestion of a breakdown in political communication at the highest level, noting that Prime Minister Modi and President Trump had spoken frequently over the past 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," he added.
The Centre's response followed comments made by Lutnick during an interview on a podcast released on Thursday. In that interview, the US Commerce Secretary claimed that negotiations with India failed to reach a conclusion while Washington moved ahead with trade agreements with other countries.
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.
He added that after the UK deal, President Trump publicly mentioned India several times as a potential next partner. "We were talking with India, and we told India, 'you have three Fridays'. Well, they have to get it done," Lutnick said.
In his account, while his department handled the negotiations and technical work, the final political sign-off rested with President Trump. "Let's be clear, it's his deal. He is the closer. He does the deal," Lutnick said.
He claimed that US officials had expected a direct call between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump at the final stage. "I said, 'You got to have Modi, it's all set up, you have to have Modi call the President.' They were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn't call," he said.
