'Right now they don’t love me...': Trump says US-India getting close to 'fair deal' on trade, repeats Russian oil claims

United States President Donald Trump said on Monday (Nov 11) that the US is getting close to reaching a trade deal with India. The US president said that the deal would expand economic and security ties between the two countries, boost American energy exports and promote investments in key US sectors. Trump spoke to reporters during the swearing-in ceremony of Sergio Gor, the new US Ambassador to India, at the Oval Office.

"We’re making a deal with India. Much different than we had. Right now they don’t love me but they will love us again. We’re getting a fair deal. They’re very good negotiators, so Sergio, you will have to take a look at that. I think we’re pretty close to doing a deal that is good for everybody," Trump said. Speaking to reporters later, Trump also repeated the claims of India stopping the purchase of Russian oil, "Well, right now, the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil, and they’ve stopped doing the Russian oil. It’s been reduced very substantially. Yeah, we’re going to be bringing the tariffs down. At some point, we’re going to be bringing them down," he said.

Praising India as "one of the world's oldest civilisations" and "the largest country in the world", United States President Donald Trump presided over the swearing-in ceremony of Sergio Gor as the next US Ambassador to India, underscoring the vital importance of the US-India partnership Trump said he was entrusting Gor to further strengthen strategic, economic, and security ties with New Delhi, while deepening America's "fantastic relationship" with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Present at the swearing-in ceremony were US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, Erika Kirk and several senators.

In August, Trump nominated Sergio Gor as India's next ambassador and Special Envoy for South and Central Asian Affairs. During his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September, Gor had emphasised that India is “one of the most important relationships our nation (US) has in the world.” Ahead of his swearing-in, he had visited India in October and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EAM S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval.