External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said India-US trade negotiations were moving towards a possible conclusion, with officials from both countries working to resolve the remaining differences. However, he cautioned that the outcome would also depend on the terms Washington negotiates with competing economies.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum 2026 in New Delhi. Jaishankar said discussions were ongoing and declined to disclose details publicly.
“My sense is that this is an issue which is heading towards a landing point,” he said during a conversation with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait.
Jaishankar said India’s Commerce and Industry Ministry and the Office of the US Trade Representative were working through the outstanding issues. He added that the terms offered to other economies mattered because they could affect India’s competitive position in the US market.
Tariffs linked to US reindustrialisation
Jaishankar said Washington had changed how it engages with the world and that countries needed to reassess their relationships with the US. He linked the administration’s tariff policy to its efforts to rebuild domestic manufacturing and reset the terms on which other countries access its economy.
“The US is today determined to reindustrialise and to reset the terms of access to its economy,” he said, adding that major economies were negotiating with Washington on these issues.
India, he said, was not alone in the process. The negotiations also involve weighing the terms secured by competing economies, an issue Jaishankar said was not entirely clear because not all countries had concluded their deals.
Strategic partnership, not an alliance
Jaishankar said the changing US approach did not fundamentally alter the basis of India-US ties. He described the relationship as a strategic partnership built over more than two decades around converging interests, rather than a formal alliance.
“We are a country which has a strong strategic partnership with the US, but a strategic partnership is a partnership; it’s not an alliance,” he said.
He added that Washington’s review of alliances and treaty relationships was being felt most strongly in Europe and, to some extent, in East Asia. India’s relationship with the US, he said, was based on a different framework.
Jaishankar’s remarks follow comments earlier this month by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who said negotiations were in the “short strokes” but cautioned that an announcement was not imminent. Greer said both sides had identified the key sticking points and were working to resolve them. He also described his discussions with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal as constructive.