U.S. President Donald Trump. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (May 16, 2025) went on to re-iterate his claim of India offering a zero-tariff deal to the United States, as he sought to yet again highlight his role in the reducing tensions between India and Pakistan.
In an interview to Fox News, Mr. Trump picked up the tariff topic as he was discussing the cessation of military action between India and Pakistan. The U.S. President, who has taken to emphasise his role in the understanding reached between India and Pakistan, said that he put a pause in the tensions by bringing up trade.
“The hatred was great. And I said, ‘We’re going to talk about trade. We’re going to do a lot of trade.”
Calling India one of the highest tariff nations in the world, Mr. Trump said he is using trade to settle scores and to make peace. “Do you know that they’re willing to cut 100% of their tariffs for the United States?” Mr. Trump said during the interview, even as both the countries are yet to announce an explicit deal.
There has been no announcement from India over the issue. Moreover, earlier in the weekly media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had noted that the matter of India-U.S. trade did not figure in the telephone conversations the leadership of India and the U.S. held against the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, which targeted nine terror locations inside Pakistan and PoK on May 7.
When asked if the deal with India is coming soon, Mr. Trump said, “Yeah, that’ll come soon. I’m in no rush. Look, everybody wants to make a deal with us.” “South Korea wants to make a deal…but I’m not going to make deals with everybody. I’m just going to set the limit. I’ll make another some deals… because I can’t, you can’t meet with that many people. I’ve got 150 countries that want to make deals,” Mr. Trump said.
This was the seventh time in as many days that Mr. Trump repeated his claim that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.
His comments about the deal between India and United States also come at time when India and the U.S. are set to commence ministerial-level meetings in Washington to assess the progress of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement. Union Minister Piyush Goyal is in Washington for the meetings beginning on Saturday (May 17, 2025)
With inputs from agencies
Published – May 17, 2025 10:44 am IST
