The India-US trade agreement is in its “last mile” but “it’s never done till it’s done”, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday about efforts by the two countries to find common ground on the deal they have negotiated for more than a year.
The trade deal figured in Jaishankar’s meeting with Rubio in Mumbai this week after the secretary of state visited India for the second time in less than five months. Bilateral ties have been hit by the Trump administration’s unpredictable trade policies, immigration restrictions that have impacted Indian professionals and growing ties between Washington and the Pakistani military leadership. “They have something against Mumbai. It’s our financial capital, it’s our Bollywood capital. It has got so much going for it. He responded to a question on Pakistan’s military leadership wooing the Trump administration in the US and the perception that Washington hasn’t fully understood New Delhi’s concerns on cross-border terror by saying the issue is much broader. “Of course we want good relations with Pakistan, we want that with all our neighbours but will I overlook terror for that? I will not. Till then, there were people who would keep making these arguments.
Jaishankar listed examples of Indian leaders travelling out of New Delhi to meet foreign dignitaries, including two instances involving Congress leaders – former PM Indira Gandhi met Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Shimla in 1972 to sign the Simla Agreement, and Union minister Salman Khurshid hosted a lunch for then Pakistan PM Raja Pervez Ashraf in Jaipur in 2013. “The national mood on Pakistan changed after 26/11. After 26/11, only the government of the day made the argument.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and commerce minister Piyush Goyal too have spoken of the two sides moving towards the final stages of the trade deal, he said at a session at the NDTV World Summit. Jaishankar said he failed to understand criticism by opposition parties of his visit to Mumbai to meet Rubio, which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had described as a “summoning”. Maybe Mumbai doesn’t like them, I have no idea why they have this reservation,” the minister said. it is unwilling to overlook terrorism to achieve this, he said While India desires good relations with Pakistan. The government is very clear,” he said.
