India-US relations 'very good'; don't see any problem: Piyush Goyal

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said India-US relations are "very good" and will only improve irrespective of changes in political thinking in the two countries.

Goyal said that the bilateral relationship goes beyond trade and encompasses defence, technology, critical minerals and people-to-people ties.

"Of course, it is already very good. I don't see any problem as we speak also. And to my mind, the relationship with the US that India enjoys is very substantive, very consequential for the world, being two large democracies," he said at the Bloomberg New Economy event here.

He was responding to a question on whether India-US relations would improve after US president Donald Trump leaves office.

 

"One must bear in mind that we have, it's not only about trade, which of course they are our largest trading partner and I think will continue to be in the years to come. And by and large, I don't see any problem in any agreements also with the United States," the minister said.

Goyal further said, "It's about trade, it's about defence partnership, it's our technology partnership, it's our critical minerals partnership, it's our people-to-people engagement".

He added that the two countries continue to have a "very" close relationship and both sides continue to engage in areas such as defence exercises, ensuring open supply chains for technology, goods, and services.

"The US and India have a very, very consequential relationship and it's only going to get better irrespective of changes in political thinking, whether in India or in the US. The relationship draws its strength from our economic imperatives, from our political imperatives, from our security imperatives," he said.

"So it's a very safe relationship. I don't think the rest of the world needs to worry about it," he added.

These remarks are important as the two countries are negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The framework for the inter pact was announced in February, but changes in tariff landscape in the US have led to further negotiations.

India is seeking better tariffs than its competitors for its goods in the US market. Earlier this month, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that the United States and India were working to finalise a bilateral trade deal, but an agreement was not imminent.

On October 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said negotiations for the India-US trade agreement are still underway, but both sides appeared to have reached a "plateau", with limited room for further concessions.

India's outbound shipments to the US grew marginally by 0.92 per cent to USD 87.3 billion during the last fiscal year despite high tariffs, while imports increased 15.95 per cent to USD 52.9 billion. The trade surplus declined to USD 34.4 billion in 2025-26 from USD 40.89 billion in 2024-25.