US- India is trying to close an early harvest trade agreement ahead of a loomening July 9 deadline where the US can impose reciprocal tariffs on imports of 57 countries including India.She further said that President Donald Trump has a good relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India is a very strategic partner in the Asia Pacific and the President has very good relations with Prime Minister Modi and he is going to keep that, she added, when asked about Chinese increasing influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Trump to join QUAD summit in India
These comments by Leavitt come in the background of an official visit by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to the United States in which he is attending the QUAD Foreign Ministers Meeting. QUAD consisting of India, the US, Australia and Japan is determined to make sure that Indo-Pacific remains free, open and resilient. The QUAD started as humanitarian project initiated simultaneously in the year 2004 in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, but it has since become a core strategic alliance.
The news that President Trump had accepted the invitation to participate in the next QUAD summit in New Delhi delivered by Prime Minister Modi reached the official status on June 18. To the next QUAD meeting, PM Modi extended invitation to the US to President Trump to India. I am looking forward to arrive in India, said President Trump as he accepted the invitation, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a video message.
Negotiations over trade are ramped up by tariff deadline
At the same time, the two nations are also in process of striking an early harvest trade deal which will have to be done before July 9, when US is slated to invoke equal tariffs on imports of nations that include India.
Sources close to the development said that India delegation headed by chief negotiator and Special Secretary for Commerce Rajesh Agrawal, visited Washington last week and held a bilateral round of talks in two days. The major aim of the negotiations is to establish major trade matters and to establish the basis of a greater Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) which is viewed to be completed by September or October 2025.
This is the critical step in relations between India and the US and both of them are increasing their strategic and economic cooperation in the run-up to the QUAD Summit.