EAM Jaishankar holds talks with Rubio in Canada; focus on trade

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday held talks with his American counterpart Marco Rubio that largely focused on issues relating to trade and supply chains.

Jaishankar and Rubio met on the sidelines of a conclave of G7 foreign ministers in Canada’s Niagara region.

The meeting came two days after US President Donald Trump said Washington is close to reaching a fair trade deal with India and that he will lower tariffs imposed on New Delhi at some point.

The ties between the two countries are going through possibly the worst phase in the last two decades after Trump imposed a whopping 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, including a 25 per cent levies for New Delhi’s procurement of Russian oil.

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Following his talks with Rubio, Jaishankar said it was a “good” meeting.

“Appreciate his condolences on the loss of lives in the blast in Delhi,” the external affairs minister said on social media.

“Discussed our bilateral ties, focusing on trade and supply chains. Exchanged views on the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East/West Asia situation and Indo-Pacific,” he said.

It was the second meeting between Jaishankar and Rubio in the last two weeks. They held a meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit in Kuala Lumpur on October 27.

It is learnt that both sides are hopeful of concluding the proposed trade deal.

Five rounds of talks were held so far for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement.

“We’re making a deal with India, a much different deal than we had in the past. So right now, they don’t love me, but they’ll love us again,” Trump said on Monday.

Last month, an Indian official said that the two countries are very close to concluding the proposed bilateral trade agreement, as both sides are converging on most of the issues.

The official had said that the two countries are sorting out the language of the agreement.

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