US envoy Gor: Long-pending India-US trade deal close to completion

Atlanta, October 31: A proposed trade pact between India and the United States, which has been pending for a long time, has reached its final phase, and both countries are aiming to wrap it up soon. US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said so on Saturday.

Gor said the India-European Union trade agreement took about 20 years to be finalised. He noted that the India-US negotiations have been going on for just over a year. He asked people to see the current effort in a broader light, arguing there is enough time to reach a result.

Speaking to journalists in Atlanta shortly before a meeting of Quad foreign ministers, he said, "The trade agreement has been in the final stage for a long time, and we are hopeful of successfully finalising it." He continued, "We are a little more than a year into this process, so we have adequate time. We will complete it."

According to Gor, the ministerial meeting involving the United States, India, Japan and Australia could set the stage for a leaders' summit of the four countries. It is the third Quad ministerial meeting this year, after sessions in Delhi and Manila. He hoped the Atlanta talks would make it easier to finalise and announce the leaders' summit.

Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, is hosting the meeting, and S. Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister, is attending. Gor said Quad cooperation and dialogue are ongoing, with contact on different issues almost every week, making high-level participation especially important.

He described India-US ties as outstanding and said the two nations are working together at a deeper level than before across pharmaceuticals, information technology and military cooperation. He added that India conducts more military exercises with America than with any other country.

Gor mentioned the deployment of 500 US troops in the 'Yudh Abhyas' military exercise and the recent 'Tarang Shakti' air exercise. He said F-35 fighter jets took part in Tarang Shakti for the first time.

He also signalled that a significant military exercise between the two countries is coming up. "You will see something very soon. Another very interesting military exercise will take place next month," he said, without giving further information.

Gor said Rubio had visited India twice in the past six months and voiced hope that he would visit again next year. He observed that the two countries have several areas where cooperation can grow. The focus of the current engagement, he said, is commercial diplomacy and the energy sector.

He concluded that both sides expect important achievements and announcements before the G20 meeting and are working quickly behind the scenes. After the Quad ministerial, Jaishankar will attend the closing session of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting.