The United States and India are “very, very close” to signing a trade agreement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday.
“I would say we are about as close as you can be without having an executed agreement,” he told the reporters in Mumbai during his three-day visit to India.
Describing India as an important commercial and strategic partner, Rubio said that there were only a “small number of items to wrap up” and that the deal might “happen shortly”.
Rubio also said that during his visit to Jamnagar on Wednesday, he will hold talks with Reliance Industries about refining more Venezuelan oil. The US secretary of state is scheduled to meet Reliance Industries chairperson Mukesh Ambani in Jamnagar.
“They have done so in the past,” he said. “They have the capability to refine heavy crude.”
Describing India as a “refining superpower”, Rubio said that during talks in the past New Delhi sounded “willing to do it”.
Rubio said that the company has “pre-existing oil concessions” in the South American country. The concessions grant foreign companies the right to explore, extract, refine or sell a country’s crude oil in exchange for fees or royalties.
“We are going to go see what their hold-up is and what opportunities exist,” he said. “…this is a company...