Will have to watch this space for next few days: EAM Jaishankar on India-US trade deal

New York: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has expressed hope that trade negotiations between India and the US would reach a "successful conclusion", emphasising the need for the two countries to find a “meeting ground”.

"And I think we'll have to watch this space for the next few days,” he said.

“You spoke about trade, yes we are in the middle, hopefully, more than the middle, of a very intricate trade negotiation," Jaishankar said on Monday.

His remarks came during a conversation with Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad at the publication’s headquarters at One World Trade Centre near the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan.

"Obviously, my hope would be that we bring it to a successful conclusion. I cannot guarantee it, because there's another party to that discussion,” he said.

Jaishankar was responding to a question on the India-US relationship and the trade negotiations between the two nations.

He said that there will have to be give and take.  "And just like the US or people in the US may have views about India, people in India have views about the US too. And we'll have to find a kind of meeting ground. I believe it's possible," he said.

In response to another question on the India-US trade negotiations, Jaishankar said there have been very, very intense discussions over the last few months. “I can't vouch for which country has had how many rounds, but I suspect we would be among the countries which have done the most.” An Indian delegation is currently in Washington DC and discussions are ongoing over the bilateral trade agreement.

“So our expectation, our hope, certainly is that we will bring it to a common ground,” he said, adding that these are complicated negotiations.  “You are really looking at thousands of lines and doing very intricate trade-offs, both based on what are actually the market values of those lines and what could be the expected market values of those lines. So these are not simple, back-of-the-envelope calculations.

"Far from it. So that exercise is going on. If they can get I think a fair balance, you will get an outcome. Obviously, diplomacy is an optimistic profession, so I hope that we will reach there. But things being what they are, it's not done till it's done,” he said.

In response to a question that President Donald Trump had said the trade deal with India will happen soon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt agreed and said at the press briefing on Monday that Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was in the Oval Office with President Trump and “they are finalising these agreements.

"You'll hear from the President and his team, his trade team very soon when it comes to India," she said.

On the India-US relations from the presidency years of Bill Clinton to the current Trump administration, Jaishankar said the trend lines in bilateral relations have been very positive.

The trend line over the last 25 years has been very strong because there are structural factors that work for the relationship such as economics, technology, education, security and energy, he said.

“All these are today drivers of the relationship," he said.

Jaishankar said there will be arguments and differences in the relationship.

“Sure, it happens. It won't be for the first time. In fact, at every one of these presidencies, I can think of something which at that time was a friction point,” he said, as he recalled having to deal with Washington's plans to sell F16 aircraft to Pakistan.  “Relationships will never be free of issues, even I would say, differences. I think what matters is the ability to deal with it and to keep that trend going in the positive direction,” he said.