Indo-UStradedeal: New Delhi’s patience, restraint has paid off

How will one describe the India-US trade deal, an outcome of patience and restraint exercised by New Delhi, now that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) has already been termed as the "mother of all deals"?

- ASHOKTUTEJA

Though its details are still not available, the Indo-US deal has been reached after a year of negotiations during which hard bargaining was done by both sides. “Quite often we were close to the deal but at times it did appear that we are far away from concluding it...of course, there is always give and take in any deal of this nature,” an official said, without disclosing anything further. Until a few weeks back, there were no indications that India and the US were about to close the deal despite a recent positive statement on the pact by US President Donald Trump, given his unpredictable character. But what worked in India’s favour was concluding the FTA with the 27-nation EU last week. Also, the arrival in New Delhi last month of President Trump’s close aide Sergio Gor as Ambassador to India helped the two countries quietly fast track the negotiations. It goes to the credit of the political leadership and the bureaucracy in India that it never lost patience and was quite guarded in its reaction to any offensive statement coming fr