India-US trade deal: NSA Doval did not meet US State Secy Rubio, says MEA
MEA Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed a report that claimed Ajit Doval met Marco Rubio, saying no such meeting or no such visit has taken place
 "India-US trade deal: NSA Doval did not meet US State Secy Rubio, says MEA")
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday denied a Bloomberg report claiming that National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval had visited Washington to hold talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ease tensions between the two countries.
MEA Official Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed the report during the weekly media briefing, saying there was no truth to it. “Absolutely no basis for the report. No such meeting or no such visit has taken place,” Jaiswal said.
What Bloomberg report claimed
According to the Bloomberg report, Doval had travelled to the US to convey that India wanted to move past the strain in bilateral ties and resume negotiations on a trade deal.
The report claimed Doval told Rubio that India would not be pressured by US President Donald Trump or his top aides and was prepared to wait out his term, adding that New Delhi had dealt with difficult US administrations in the past.
However, India wanted Trump and his team to tone down their public criticism to help bring relations back on track, the report said. At the time, Trump and several high-ranking officials publicly criticised India for charging high tariffs and buying oil from Russia despite the Ukraine conflict.
India-US trade deal announced
India and the US announced a trade deal earlier this week, after almost a year of negotiations between the two countries. The trade agreement lowered the tariffs on Indian imports from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
On February 2, Trump announced the agreement in a post on Truth Social. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also confirmed the deal, saying, “Wonderful to speak with my dear friend President Donald Trump. Delighted that Made in India products will now have a reduced tariff of 18 per cent.”
However, details of the trade deal are still awaited. While PM Modi did not highlight details beyond the tariff reduction, Trump said India has agreed to cut its tariffs and non-tariff barriers to zero and significantly increase purchases of American products.
“He (Modi) also committed to ‘BUY AMERICAN,’ at a much higher level, in addition to over 500 billion dollars of US energy, technology, agricultural, coal and many other products,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.