MEA slams Howard Lutnick’s ‘Modi didn’t speak’ claim on India-US trade deal: ‘PM, Trump spoke 8 times in 2025’

The Ministry of External Affairs announced on Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken with the President of the United States eight times in 2025. These words were not said in a direct response to the United States’ Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, who earlier stated that India(BHARAT)n Prime Minister Modi did call President Doland Trump. Now, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, has given a statement: “The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on India(BHARAT)-US talks

The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a media briefing on Friday said, “We have seen the remarks. India(BHARAT) and the US were committed to negotiating a bilateral trade agreement as far back as February 13, 2025. Since then, the two sides have held multiple rounds of negotiations to arrive at a balanced and mutually beneficial trade agreement. On several occasions, we have been close to a deal. The characterisation of these discussions in the reported remarks is not accurate.”

He added that the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has spoken to the United States’ President, Doland Trump, 8 times in the year 2025, and the two leaders talked about various aspects of the partnership. According to the MEA spokesperson Jaiswal, the leaders from both nations share a ‘friendly relationship’.

What had US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said earlier?

The Commerce Secretary of the United States, Howard Lutnick, earlier mentioned that the trade deal between India(BHARAT) and the United States didn’t happen, as PM Modi didn’t take the initiative of calling the US President, Doland Trump.

He added, “We did Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and we announced a whole bunch of deals. So we did these whole bunch of deals… because we negotiated them and assumed India(BHARAT) was going to be done before them, I have negotiated them at a higher rate.”

“So now the problem is the deals came out at a higher rate. And then India(BHARAT) calls back and says, ‘Oh, okay, we are ready’.. I said, Ready for what?”

According to Lutnick on a podcast named All In on Thursday, India(BHARAT) was “uncomfortable” in closing the deal. Now, the MEA’s statement points at the possibility of an indirect response to Lutnick, as per reports.