US ‘close’ to finalizing trade deal with New Delhi, says Rubio ahead of India trip

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Washington is “very close” to finalizing a trade deal with India.

“We’re trying to finalize a trade deal with India right now. We’re very close to doing that,” Rubio said in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, where he will be meeting with his Central Asian counterparts before embarking on a three-day visit to India on Tuesday.

He is expected to arrive in India’s financial hub Mumbai and later visit the world’s largest single-site oil refinery in Jamnagar, a city in western state of Gujarat state.

On Russian oil and gas, Rubio said Washington had decided to waive sanctions due to their potential impact on global energy supplies and prices.

“We have to manage all of these things. We’re trying to finalize a trade deal with India right now. We’re very close to doing that. That’s one of the things we take into consideration when the President (Donald Trump) makes a decision about national security waivers and things of that nature,” he said.

Every country, he observed, has a “complex set of factors” that it has to take into account.

“Geography is real. For some countries, it’s very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources. That’s not an excuse, but all of that has to be balanced when making foreign policy,” he maintained.

The US and India announced in February that they had reached terms on an interim framework deal aimed at resolving a bilateral trade dispute.

Last week, Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the first tranche of the India-US trade deal has been finalized and is undergoing “legal drafting.”

“We hope to be able to finalize that soon and operationalize that once we get the comparable advantage or competitive advantage over our peer countries,” Goyal had told an event in New Delhi.

Tensions between the US and India had escalated last year over 50% tariffs imposed on Indian goods by Trump administration, partly over India’s continued purchases of Russian oil amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

Bilateral trade between the two countries, which maintain a comprehensive global strategic partnership, totaled around $149.4 billion last year.