US-India Trade Deal in Limbo: Delhi Rejects Lutnick's 'Modi Call Delay' Claim

Amid ongoing negotiations over the India-US trade deal, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call US President Donald Trump after the agreement was initially set up last summer, suggesting this as a reason for the deal’s delay.

According to Lutnick, Indian negotiators later returned to conclude the deal, but by then Washington was seeking different terms. His remarks came hours before US Ambassador-designate Sergio Gor arrived in India on Friday night. “Great to be back in India! Incredible opportunities ahead for our two nations,” Gor posted on X. He is expected to take charge of the US Embassy on Monday.

Despite prolonged negotiations since February last year, India continues to face US tariffs of up to 50 per cent. Officials in Delhi, however, maintained that the trade deal remains “very much alive.” Within hours of Lutnick’s comments circulating on social media, the Government rejected his version, saying, “The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated, “India and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13 last year. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiation to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate. We remain interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and look forward to concluding it. Incidentally, Prime Minister and President Trump have also spoken on phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership.”

Lutnick’s interview on a podcast on January 9 disclosed two key points — first, it is the first public acknowledgement by a US official that India and the US had initially reached an understanding; second, it implies Washington was displeased at not receiving a call from Modi. In diplomatic terms, such a call would have signified political endorsement and formal acknowledgement from India’s highest level.

Referring to Trump as the “closer” of the deal, Lutnick said, “What I would do is I would negotiate the contracts and set the whole deal up. But let’s be clear, it’s his (President Trump’s) deal. Yeah, okay, he’s the closer. He does the deal. So I said, ‘You got to have (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi (call). It’s all set up. You have to have Modi call the president.’ They were uncomfortable doing it, so Modi didn’t call.”

Lutnick blamed India for the deal not materialising, saying “India just was, you know, on the wrong side of the seesaw, and it wasn’t. It was just they couldn’t get it done when they needed to, and then they couldn’t get it done, and then they couldn’t get it done, and then they couldn’t get it done. And so what happened is all these other countries kept doing deals, and they’re just further in the back of the line… And they remember, and I remember they say, but, but you agreed? And I said, then. Not now.”

He described Trump’s deal-making style as a “staircase,” recalling the US-UK deal finalised on May 8, coinciding with India-Pakistan tensions under Operation Sindoor. “If you remember, I did the first deal with the UK… President Trump does deals like a staircase. First stair gets the best deal… So he did the UK deal… Here (UK PM Keir) Starmer is on the phone with the president, they do their deal on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, we have a press conference and we announce it,” Lutnick said.

Trump had publicly indicated that India would follow, raising expectations in both capitals. Lutnick added, “So everybody asked the president, who do you think is next?… he names India a couple of times publicly… And we told India, you had three Fridays to get it done. So that Friday left… we did Indonesia, the Philippines… Vietnam, we announced a whole bunch of deals… And then India calls back and says, Oh, okay, we were ready. I said, ready for what it was like three weeks later. I go, are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?”

Separately, Jaiswal responded to Trump’s recent remarks claiming, “Prime Minister Modi came to see me, ‘Sir, may I see you please’,” saying the leaders share a “friendly relationship” and “have always addressed each other with mutual respect as per diplomatic norms,” though there was “a sense of disquiet in Delhi over Trump’s tone.”

On US sanctions against Russia, Jaiswal noted, “We are aware of the proposed bill. We are closely following the developments. Our position on the larger question of energy sourcing is well known…In this endeavour, we are guided by the evolving dynamics of the global market and by the imperative to secure affordable energy from diverse sources to meet the energy security needs of our 1.4 billion people.”

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