India-US trade deal 'on its way' says US ambassador Sergio Gor

NEW DELHI: The India-US relationship is anchored in trust and friendship between PM Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump, said US ambassador to India Sergio Gor. The ambassador also said that the bilateral trade agreement under discussion is "on its way" while pointing to surging trade numbers.

"The numbers don't lie. If you look at the trajectory of our relationship, just go by the numbers. And so, 15 years ago, our bilateral trade was $20 billion. Today, it's $240 billion. And it's continuing to grow. The two leaders set an ambitious goal of $500 billion in the next few years," said Gor, addressing The ET World Leaders Forum.

"In fact, within a month of me getting here, at one point, we announced that we had a deal. Supreme Court struck down a big part of what the deal was based on... so right now, we're reconfiguring some of that text. "But the trade deal is, in principle, almost everything is done. A lot of it is the legal technical language that needs to be sorted out. So, I'm optimistic we'll get done," he said.

Gor said that the two countries have a natural partnership and one which will define the global stage. "We have two of the biggest giants in business. We have two of the biggest economies. Us ,working together, is a natural partnership. And you can look decade by decade and forget the daily bumps... the relationship has been doing this decade by decade and growing," said the ambassador. Backing the Quad mechanism, Gor said US secretary of state Marco Rubio will be visiting India again this year. "The secretary will be coming here to India, but after India, we're actually going to continue, and he's going to travel to Australia, and that'll be another quad meeting," he said.