NEW DELHI, India (Diya TV) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that negotiators had completed about 99% of a trade agreement with India and could finalize it within weeks. But Indian officials have recently described talks as stalled, and the two governments have not published final terms or set a signing date.
“We are weeks, not months, away from, I think, finalising it,” Rubio said in an interview. He said the remaining disputes concern the meaning of specific words and phrases, but declined to identify them. His 99% figure reflects his assessment; it does not mean the countries have completed or signed the agreement.
The negotiations concern the next phase of a trade framework the countries reached in February. That framework lowered U.S. tariffs on most Indian goods from 50% to 18%. India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said last week that officials were working through final legal language, but New Delhi would proceed only if the terms gave Indian exporters a competitive position against rivals such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia.
The dispute over Russian oil has also complicated talks. Trump last week issued a 60-day waiver on a threatened tariff tied to purchases of Russian energy. Rubio acknowledged that tariffs could hurt U.S.-India ties, but said Washington did not intend to punish India.
Rubio also said recent U.S. visa restrictions do not target India. He framed them as part of a broader effort to enforce immigration rules. The changes remain a concern for Indian professionals and companies that rely on U.S. work visas.
During his India visit, Rubio met with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai. They discussed trade, energy, technology, defense and regional issues. Rubio also said U.S. relations with Pakistan would not come at India’s expense and warned that a trade war with China could damage the global economy, including India’s.
