India continues to remain engaged with US on trade deal: Ministry of External Affairs

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would do a “trade deal with India."

AFP__20251008__76VG73H__v1__MidRes__IndiaUsTariffTradeTextile.jpg

In this photograph taken on September 25, 2025, employees work at a garment factory in Tiruppur, in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. PHOTO: AFP

October 31, 2025

NEW DELHI – India continues to remain engaged with the US side to conclude a trade deal, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.

Responding to a question on India-US trade talks while addressing his weekly media briefing in New Delhi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “We continue to remain engaged with the US side to conclude a trade deal, and these discussions are continuing…”

US President Donald Trump, who was of late seen softening his stand on India after imposing a 25 per cent “reciprocal tariff” and another 25 per cent as penalty for buying Russian oil, said on Wednesday that he was going to do a “trade deal with India”.

This is the first time that the US president openly laid bare his thoughts on the resumption of negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement with New Delhi. “I’m doing a trade deal with India and I have great respect and love… as you know… for Prime Minister Narendra Modi… we have a great relationship,” he said in South Korea’s Gyeongju, where he landed from Japan as part of his three-nation tour that included Malaysia.

Trump paid eulogies to Prime Minister Modi, calling him “the nicest looking guy… He looks like you’d like to have your father like…”

scroll to top