'Modi didn't call': Howard Lutnick's big claim on India-US trade deal deadlock, says THIS on America

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed in an interview on Friday that the trade deal with India is not done because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call President Donald Trump. Lutnick said that the whole deal was set up but Modi needed to call Trump for it to reach it conclusion. 

"The whole deal was set up. But let's be clear, it's his (Trump) deal. He is the closer. He does the deal. You just had to have Modi call the President. They were uncomfortable doing it. Modi didn't call. We did trade deals with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. We assumed a trade deal with India before them,"  Lutnick said in an interview with Chamath Palihapitiya.

Top Trump aide said that since the White House assumed the deal with India would be done before the abovementioned countries, he negotiated with New Delhi at a higher rate. 

Furthermore, he confirmed that America went back on the trade deal it agreed with India. "India remembers the deal we agreed to. I remember it. They tell you agreed to this deal. I told them I agreed then. Not now. 

He said that Trump had already identified India as one of the next major candidates for a trade deal after the UK. In stark contrast with India, he said that UK PM Keir Starmer personally got on the phone with Trump as the deadline approached.

Furthermore, he described India as being on "the wrong side of the seesaw" -- when timing rather than intent becomes decisive. Lutnick added that the delay was not necessarily due to bad faith, but rather to the complexity of India's political and parliamentary processes. 

Referring to the need for domestic approvals in large democracies, he said, "These are deeply complex things." “There are a lot of countries, and they each have their own deep internal politics.”

Despite the setback, he indicated that the doors remained open. "India will work it out," he said, adding the global trade agenda has been moving rapidly under Trump, with trade deals already completed with Japan, Europe, Korea and several Asian economies. 

Currently, the India-US trade deal is undergoing intense negotiations. India. While both sides continue to signal that a deal is "close", significant disagreements continue due to high tariffs and geopolitical demands. 

His comments come a day after Trump approved the Russia Sanctions Bill, penned by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and his Democratic counterpart Richard Blumenthal, giving the president sweeping authority to penalise Russia's trading partners, including India, China, and Brazil, for their purchase of Russian oil. 

"This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivise them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides financing for Putin's bloodbath against Ukraine," Graham wrote on X. 

The Bill would require the US to impose tariffs as high as 500 per cent on all goods imported from any country that continues to purchase oil, petroleum, products or uranium from Russia.