Jaishankar Says India-US Trade Talks Are Heading to a 'Landing Point' but Won't Give Details

Since India and the United States opened talks in early 2025, the proposed bilateral trade pact has stayed unfinished. In the past two weeks, officials have described its status in three different ways.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said more than a week ago that negotiations had reached a "plateau." US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said earlier this month that the two sides were working to finalize a deal but that an agreement was not imminent. Greer said both sides had identified the issues that remained unresolved.

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar offered the most upbeat read yet.

What Jaishankar said

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi, in a conversation with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Jaishankar was asked where the talks stand.

"I think we are waiting on a few things. I wouldn't be comfortable spilling the beans in public," he said.

Then: "My sense is that this is an issue which is heading towards a landing point."

He said India's commerce minister and the USTR were "ironing it out." He also said India is "pretty far advanced" in the negotiating process.

That is an assessment, not an announcement. No tariff rates, product lists or signing date came out of the remarks.

The part India doesn't control

Jaishankar framed the talks as two negotiations in one. One is what India works out directly with Washington. The other is how India fares against competing economies.

"And that part of it is not entirely clear because not everybody has worked out a deal," he said.

India is seeking better tariff treatment than its competitors for goods sold into the American market. A deal with Washington can still leave Indian exporters at a disadvantage if rivals land better terms. India's position depends on the terms of deals that have not yet been finished.

Jaishankar tied the whole exercise to Washington's economic goals. "The US has a fundamentally different approach to the use of tariffs," he said. "But even that is a symptom of something else. The US is today determined to re-industrialise and to reset the terms of access to its economy."

He added that "every significant economy is getting into a negotiation with the United States on this issue," and said, "We're not alone in this."

Russia and China

Jaishankar also defended India's relationship with Moscow. He said India is pursuing closer economic ties with Washington and Europe while keeping partnerships that preserve its freedom to make its own strategic choices.

On China, he said normal relations require stability and peace along the border.

He said the core fundamentals of the India-US strategic partnership remain unchanged.

Goyal: relations 'very good'

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal spoke at the same forum on Wednesday, Oct. 14. Asked whether ties would improve after President Donald Trump leaves office, he said relations are "already very good."

"I don't see any problem as we speak also," Goyal said. He called the relationship "very substantive, very consequential for the world."

Goyal said the relationship goes beyond trade to defence exercises, technology, critical minerals and people-to-people ties. He said the U.S. is India's largest trading partner and will remain so. "It's only going to get better irrespective of changes in political thinking, whether in India or in the US," he said.

Goyal did not give a timeline for the trade agreement in the remarks quoted.

Where it stands

The public record is a mix of signals. Sitharaman said the talks had plateaued. Greer said a deal wasn't imminent. Jaishankar said the talks are heading toward a landing point but that India is still "waiting on a few things." None of the three has named the sticking points, and Jaishankar said he would not do so in public.

What happens next depends partly on Washington's deals with other economies. Jaishankar said those had not all been worked out, and that is where India's relative position will be set.