US envoy says success in trade deal is in sight

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore on Tuesday said the first phase of the historic India-US trade deal is in its “final stages” and only the “last 1%” of the deal remains, according to Indian news agency PTI.

Gore expressed confidence that the deal would be reached soon, saying he was “committed to getting it done.”

Both India and the US have made similar comments in the last two months. In early June, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal also claimed that 99% of negotiations on the trade agreement were complete.

Since then, a US trade delegation and US Trade Representative Jameson Greer have visited India separately, but no major breakthroughs have been announced.

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first announced negotiations for a US-India bilateral trade agreement (BTA) in February 2025.

Although talks have been delayed due to strained relations and global conflicts, talks may have regained momentum this year.

For months, India and the United States have been insisting that a trade deal is just around the corner. Yet each round of talks seems to end with the same message: substantial progress, but no breakthrough.

The reasons lie in the familiar fault lines in global trade – market access, tariffs and a negotiation where neither side can appear to blink first.

After nearly 18 months of talks, experts tell DW that they believe Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal when he says a deal is “very close.” But the deal is unlikely to succeed unless both sides get some important assurances.

Read the full story here.

The Pakistan government is organizing a seminar on the Indus Water Treaty in Islamabad on Tuesday to discuss its rights amid India’s continued blockade of the agreement.

“Water and legal experts from across the world will participate in the seminar,” the Pakistani newspaper quoted Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar as saying. dawn.

“Legally, Pakistan’s stance has been supported internationally, as the IWT cannot be unilaterally cancelled, terminated or modified,” Tarar said. “A tap is being controlled by the Prime Minister of a neighboring country. He says he will not let even a drop of water flow into Pakistan,” he said.

A video of Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister present at the conference has gone viral on social media. Several Indian news outlets including, “It has already been declared that whoever touches our waters will have his hands cut off.” times of IndiaMusaddiq Malik was quoted as saying.

The comments come weeks after India’s water minister said in an interview to news channel NDTV that not a single drop of water meant for India would go to Pakistan.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai alleged that police officials stopped him at his hotel in the northern city of Ayodhya when he arrived with a party delegation on Monday to visit the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple amid the ongoing corruption controversy.

Rai said in the post, “I had just reached Ayodhya when the BJP government got so scared that the police arrested me from the hotel and are taking me away in their jeep.”

The government has not yet commented on this issue.

Amid the growing controversy over alleged donation theft by the temple trustees, Rai and a large delegation of the Congress party are scheduled to visit the Ram temple on Tuesday. Read our full story on Rai’s Ayodhya visit here.

Hello and welcome to DW’s India news blog!

This is Mahima Kapoor reporting from the New Delhi bureau, bringing you the day’s biggest headlines and talking points.

A Congress party leader from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has claimed that he was detained by authorities at a hotel after he reached the holy city of Ayodhya with a delegation to visit the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi temple. The huge temple – which is a shining symbol for India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party – is currently at the center of controversy. The temple trust is facing investigation over allegations of embezzlement of donation funds.

A massive fire broke out at an industrial complex in West Bengal leaving several people injured, many of them in critical condition. The incident has reportedly disrupted train services in the area.

On the international front, the US Ambassador to India has said that the trade deal between New Delhi and Washington is in its “final stages”. This is just the first phase of a historic bilateral trade agreement that has been in the works since early 2025.

Stay tuned to know all this and much more.