‘Any trade deal must be mutually beneficial,’ EAM Jaishankar on India-US trade talks

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday confirmed that trade negotiations between India and the United States are actively underway, but noted that the process remains intricate and far from final.

Emphasising the importance of mutual benefit, he cautioned against premature conclusions.

“Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on, negotiations have been going on. The team is just going at it at this point… These are very complicated negotiations; they are very intricate. Nothing is decided till everything is. Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; any trade deal has to work for both the countries. That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” Jaishankar said.

His comments come on the same day as US President Donald Trump linked the recent India-Pakistan ceasefire to a shift in focus from conflict to commerce. Addressing American troops at a base in Doha during a Gulf tour, Trump said both New Delhi and Islamabad responded positively to his suggestion to pursue trade instead of hostility.

“I don’t want to say I did, but I sure as hell helped settle the problem between Pakistan and India last week, which was getting more and more hostile, and all of a sudden, you’ll start seeing missiles of a different type, and we got it settled,” Trump said.

“I hope I don’t walk out of here and two days later find out that it’s not settled, but I think it is settled, and we talked to them about trade. Let’s do trade instead of, and Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that, and I think they’re on the way…”

Trump also made a broader reference to the long history of India-Pakistan tensions, saying, “They have been fighting for about a 1000 years in all fairness. So I said, you know. I could settle that up. I could settle; let me settle it up, and let’s get them all together. How long have you been fighting for about 1000 years? Oh, that’s a lot. I’m not sure about that. I’m not sure about settling. That’s a tough one. They’ve been fighting for a long time… It was really going to be escalating out of control.”

The cessation of hostilities Trump referred to followed heightened tensions after Operation Sindoor, launched by India in the early hours of May 7. The operation targeted nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), in retaliation for the May 5 terror attack in Pahalgam. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities on May 10. (ANI)