The US secretary of state said the two countries are “as close as you can be” to a deal without having executed the agreement

India and the US are “very close” to finalizing a bilateral trade deal, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said.

“We are very, very close,” Rubio told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday, with US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, by his side. “I would say we are about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement.” The two countries have been negotiating the deal for months.

Although the US Supreme Court threw out the tariffs that President Donald Trump imposed on India, along with on other countries, New Delhi has held off signing the deal as it sought terms that gave it a competitive advantage in the US market.

However, Trump recently waived “bone crushing sanctions” on the buyers of Russian oil, including India – the prospects of which had worried policy planners in New Delhi – removing a potential major obstacle to the deal.

Rubio called India a very important…