Modi Trump spoke 8 times MEA bins US claim of no trade deal talks

India on Friday mounted a sharp rebuttal to remarks by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the stalled India-US trade deal, firmly rejecting any suggestion that negotiations faltered due to a lack of political outreach from New Delhi and signalling that it will not allow its negotiating record or strategic autonomy to be questioned amid mounting global pressure. New Delhi also asserted that it remained interested in concluding a “mutually beneficial” trade deal between the two “complementary economies” and noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump held phone conversations on eight occasions in 2025, covering different aspects of ties.

Dismissing Lutnick’s claims as a “mischaracterisation”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India and the US had been engaged in sustained and substantive negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement since February 13 last year, with multiple rounds of talks held and both sides coming close to closure on several occasions.

“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. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate,” he added.

India made it clear that it remained keen to conclude a trade pact between what it described as “two complementary economies”, but underlined that such an agreement must be equitable and negotiated on its own merits, not through public pressure or political attribution.

The response comes amid rising trade frictions following repeated warnings from US President Donald Trump over India’s purchases of Russian oil and the threat of steep tariffs. Lutnick, speaking on a podcast, had claimed the trade deal failed to materialise because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not personally call Trump to close it, suggesting India was “uncomfortable” doing so.

Indian officials pushed back strongly against that narrative, pointing to sustained engagement at the highest political level. “PM Modi and President Trump have spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” a senior MEA official said, countering claims of any communication gap between the two leaders.

Lutnick’s remarks followed Trump’s assertion earlier this week that Modi was aware of Washington’s unhappiness over India’s continued imports of Russian crude and that the US could raise tariffs on Indian goods “very quickly”.

The warning came even as the two countries were in the midst of negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement, with six rounds of talks already completed. These include a framework to address the 50 per cent tariffs imposed on certain Indian exports to the US.

In his podcast comments, Lutnick said the US had concluded trade deals with Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam first, assuming India’s agreement would be finalised earlier. He claimed those deals were struck at higher rates, leaving New Delhi at a disadvantage when it later indicated readiness to proceed.

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Courtesy: The Tribune -10-Jan-2026