New Delhi: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri spoke with newly confirmed US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau on Friday (March 28) and the two discussed “India’s assistance addressing illegal immigration to the US” as well as “ongoing efforts to reduce barriers” as part of trade deal negotiations, per Washington.
In its readout on their conversation, the external affairs ministry simply said the two officials “touched on” issues of “mobility and migration” and did not mention the reduction of barriers or trade deal negotiations, instead saying that Misri and Landau discussed “growing bilateral trade”.
According to the US readout, Landau thanked Misri for “India’s assistance addressing illegal immigration” and asked for the Modi government’s continued cooperation.
Indian nationals are among those undocumented migrants the Donald Trump administration has deported back to their countries of origin.
The arrival of Indians in shackles and handcuffs, as well as their transfer to the custody of Central American countries, has been criticised in India.
Misri earlier said India had “registered its concern” with US authorities over their treatment of Indian deportees, of whom a total of 388 have arrived either in American military aircraft or via Panama during Trump’s second term.
Washington’s readout noted that the two officials “discussed ongoing efforts to reduce barriers to achieve a fair and balanced bilateral trade relationship”, referring to the bilateral trade agreement that both sides aim to finalise the first tranche of by autumn this year.
The deal was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month.
On Friday, India and the US said that Misri and Landau also discussed defence and technology cooperation, while the US readout said they talked about strengthening “security and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific. The external affairs ministry added that they “agreed to remain engaged on matters of mutual concern”.
Their conversation on Friday came at the tail end of a visit to India by a US delegation led by trade representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch for talks over the planned trade deal, as well as five days before Trump’s threatened reciprocal tariffs against various US trading partners including India are to kick in.
Officials on either side plan on holding a ‘wrap-up’ session on Saturday morning to conclude the talks the Lynch-led team is in India for, PTI cited government sources as saying. The talks are currently at a “very early” stage, the sources also said.
Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, who visited America earlier this month to discuss tariffs, said ongoing talks were progressing “well”.
During Modi’s visit to Washington, both sides agreed to finalise a bilateral trade deal addressing “concerns”.
Trump, who has been vocal about his displeasure with India’s high import tariffs, had said that Delhi would increase its purchases of US weapons this year by “billions of dollars”.
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” he said, even as New Delhi sought to downplay the statement.
He later claimed that India had agreed to cut its tariffs “way down” because “somebody is finally exposing them for what they’ve done”.
