External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar spoke on Wednesday and responded to the debate over Tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Speaking at the News 18 Rising Bharat Summit, Jaishankar said that India's strategy was clear and that it would engage with the United States on a bilateral trade agreement, which could conclude by the fall of this year.
When asked about India's strategy for dealing with tariffs and their impact, the EAM said, "I don't think it is possible to speak about the impact because we don't know."
Jaishankar said that India's strategy has been to engage with the US in fructifying the bilateral trade agreement.
"Our strategy is pretty clear; we decided that we will engage the Trump administration earlier on these set of issues, and we were very open with them, constructive with them as they were with us. What we agreed to do was try to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement by the fall of this year."
He further added, "To the best of my knowledge, and I could be corrected here, I think we are the only country after President Trump has resumed the presidency the second time, which has actually reached such an understanding in principle."
Jaishankar noted that as every country is tariffed, each is fashioning its own strategy to deal with the US.
"In our case, our strategy has a goal, which is to see whether it is possible to actually deal with this situation by concluding a bilateral trade agreement, and I should add that in an interesting way, this has long been our objective."
With the tariffs in place, Jaishankar underscored that the present situation may have created the circumstances for such a serious conversation, but India had been pursuing a trade deal even during President Trump's first term.
He highlighted, "So from the Indian perspective, working out a bilateral deal with the United States is not a negative or unwanted situation, on the contrary, it is something which has long been our objective".
The EAM said that since PM Modi's visit to the US, bilateral trade negotiations have sped up and seen multiple rounds of engagement. "We've had more discussions with the Americans in the last six weeks than I suspect we've had with the Europeans in the last two years," he said.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) said that countries affected by US tariffs are eager to negotiate and make deals with him, offering to do anything to secure an agreement. While speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday night (local time), Trump said he was a better negotiator than Congress.
He said, "I'm telling you- these countries are calling us up, kissing my a**. They are dying to make a deal- 'please sir make a deal, I'll do anything, I'll do anything sir'".
Trump's comments were made in the context of his administration's tariff policies, particularly with countries like China. He emphasized his ability to negotiate better deals than Congress, citing China's 104% tariffs as an example.
