India on Friday rejected US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick’s claim that a bilateral trade deal couldn’t be sealed last year because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not call President Donald Trump, and said New Delhi continues to be interested in concluding a mutually beneficial agreement.

India and the US began negotiations on a trade deal after a February meeting between Modi and Trump.

Lutnick told a podcast that India had been given “three Fridays” to clinch the agreement, and that Modi had to call Trump to close the pact. At a time when bilateral relations are at a fresh low, Lutnick caused a stir by claiming that the PM “didn’t call” as the Indian side was uncomfortable with the deal.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal referred to Lutnick’s remarks at a weekly media briefing and said: “The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”

The two sides, Jaiswal acknowledged, “have been close to a deal” on several occasions during multiple rounds of negotiations to reach a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. These negotiations were in line with a commitment finalised at the meeting between Modi and Trump at a meeting in Washington on February 13 last year to reach a trade deal.

“We remain interested in a mutually beneficial trade deal between two complementary economies and look forward to concluding it. Incidentally, Prime Minister Modi and President Trump have also spoken on the phone on eight occasions during 2025, covering different aspects of our wide-ranging partnership,” Jaiswal said.

This marked one of the rare occasions when the Indian side has pushed back against remarks by a senior US official; the other being New Delhi’s rejection of Trump’s claims to have brokered a ceasefire to end a brief but intense conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025.

People familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would not be accurate to say the two sides had reached a stage where the trade deal could have been finalised in a single phone call. They also noted that the US side had always made more demands whenever it appeared the two sides had reached an understanding.

“The US side’s focus continues to be on the opening up of India’s agriculture and dairy sectors, and the government has already made its red lines very clear,” one of the people said, noting that the latest remarks by Lutnick – who had criticised India several times during the negotiations last year – appeared to be a pressure tactic.

Speaking on the All-In Podcast, Lutnick said there was an expectation that the deal with India would be concluded before those with Indonesia or the Philippines, which were sealed in July 2025, but the effort was derailed because New Delhi was “uncomfortable” about setting up a call between Modi and Trump.

“I would…set the whole deal up but let’s be clear, it’s his [Trump’s] deal. He’s the closer, he does the deal. So I said…it’s all set up, you have to have Modi call the President. They (India) were uncomfortable doing it. So Modi didn’t call,” he said.

Lutnick said Trump does trade deals like a staircase – “first stair gets the best deal” – and the President had named India as being next in line after the US sealed a trade deal with the UK in June 2025.

“We did these whole bunch of deals because we negotiated them and assumed India was going to be done before them. I had negotiated them at a higher rate, so now the problem is the deals came out at a higher rate and then India calls back and says, ‘Okay we’re ready,’” Lutnick said. “I said ready for what? It was like three weeks later. Are you ready for the train that left the station three weeks ago?”

Lutnick further said the deal negotiated between the US and India was no longer on the table.

India and the US have struggled to conclude the trade deal despite multiple rounds of talks in 2025 and visits by senior trade officials from both sides. A team led by US deputy trade representative Rick Switzer visited India last December. In the absence of the deal, the Trump administration’s 50% tariffs on India, including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil, have remained in place.

Jaiswal also said the Indian side is closely following developments related to US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s Russia Sanctions Bill, which seeks to impose sanctions of up to 500% on countries buying Russian oil, including China and India. Trump has backed the bill, which could be voted on in the US Senate as early as next week.

“Our position on the larger question of energy sourcing is well known. In this endeavour, we are guided by the evolving dynamics of the global market and by the imperative to secure affordable energy from diverse sources to meet the energy security needs of our 1.4 billion people,” Jaiswal said.

Graham said on Wednesday that Trump had “greenlit” the bipartisan bill, which will allow the President “to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fuelling [Russian President] Putin’s war machine”.

People familiar with the matter said that the bill appeared to be more of the US’s pressure tactics amid Trump’s growing frustration at being unable to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. They noted that Russian crude oil was not a sanctioned commodity and that the US sanctions had affected Russian entities engaged in energy trade.

“It is up to India’s private refiners to decide who they buy oil from. The government’s energy sourcing is guided by ensuring stable prices for consumers,” one of the people said.

Jaiswal also noted the US’s decision to withdraw from dozens of international organisations and bodies of the United Nations, including the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and said India stands for multilateralism and believes “global issues need consultative and collaborative action by all countries”.

“Since its inception, the International Solar Alliance has made significant progress in advancing its mandate to promote solar energy deployment and cooperation among its 125 member countries. We will continue to advance its goals,” he said.