India, US in talks for mutually beneficial trade pact: Kwatra

India continues to remain closely engaged with the United States to arrive at a mutually beneficial and balanced trade agreement at the earliest, India’s Ambassador to the US Vinay Mohan Kwatra has said.Sharing his views during an interactive session, Kwatra said discussions on trade and tariffs are ongoing with the United States Trade Representative (USTR). “On trade and tariff issues, we remain very constantly engaged with the USTR with the hope of finding a mutually beneficial and balanced trade arrangement as early as possible,” he said.Kwatra noted that the momentum in bilateral ties was set during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in early February this year. “The tone for the relationship was established during the Prime Minister’s visit, where both sides agreed on a very significant and substantial outcome document covering a wide range of areas, including space,” he said.
Highlighting cooperation in the space sector, Kwatra described India’s successful launch of an American communication satellite on Wednesday as a “very important and big day” for the India-US partnership. In a major milestone, ISRO’s heaviest rocket, LVM3-M6, successfully placed the next-generation commercial communication satellite BlueBird-6 (Block-2), developed by AST SpaceMobile of the US, into its intended orbit. The mission marked the heaviest commercial satellite ever launched from Indian soil, underlining LVM3’s growing credentials as a dependable heavy-lift launch vehicle.Prime Minister Modi had visited the US in February for a bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump, their first interaction within weeks of Trump beginning his second term. In the joint statement issued after the talks, both leaders described 2025 as a “pioneering year” for US-India civil space cooperation.The statement outlined plans for a NASA-ISRO collaboration through Axiom to send the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station, along with the early launch of the joint NISAR mission — the first mission to systematically map changes on Earth’s surface using dual radar systems.The two leaders also called for deeper collaboration in space exploration, including long-duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and professional exchanges in emerging areas such as planetary protection. They further committed to expanding commercial space cooperation through industry engagement in conventional and emerging domains, including connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and launch systems, space sustainability, space tourism and advanced space manufacturing.
Kwatra referred to the Axiom-4 Mission, which carried Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station, marking India’s first human spaceflight mission to the ISS. He also highlighted the ISRO–NASA NISAR mission for advanced Earth observation, which has now been successfully launched and operationalised.“If you look at the areas we mapped out in space cooperation, within 10 months most, if not all, have been achieved,” Kwatra said, adding that engagement continues actively in other sectors such as trade, science and technology, and artificial intelligence.Kwatra said India has been working with a wide range of stakeholders in the US — across the private sector, government and think tanks — to ensure strong participation in the upcoming AI Action Summit. India will host the AI Impact Summit on February 19–20 in New Delhi, marking the first time an AI summit will be held in the Global South, following similar global summits in the UK, South Korea and France.Kwatra added that technology remains a central pillar of India’s engagement with the United States.