MEA trashes media report claiming Ajit Doval met Marco Rubio in US over trade deal in September

New Delhi: India on Thursday trashed a media report that said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval travelled to Washington last September to get back to negotiating a trade deal, and told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that New Delhi wouldn't be bullied.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) even said there was no such visit to the US by Doval.

"Regarding the report by Bloomberg, I would like to say that there is absolutely no basis for that report. No such meeting or no such visit has taken place," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

He was responding to a question on the report.

According to the report, Doval met Rubio in Washington during the visit in early September and said the two nations should put the acrimony in their relations behind them and return to negotiating a trade deal.

It claimed that Doval also told Rubio that India would not be bullied by US President Donald Trump and his top aides, and that New Delhi was willing to wait out Trump's term.

India-US ties witnessed major downturn after Trump slapped a whopping 50 per cent tariff on India including a 25 per cent additional duties for its purchase of Russian crude oil.

Following a phone conversation this week between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump, the two sides announced that US tariffs on Indian goods will be reduced to 18 per cent as part of the trade deal.