In line with Washington’s long-term vision for the Indo-Pacific, then US President Joe Biden launched the ambitious Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) in May 2022.It was an initiative aimed at deeper cooperation among like-minded countries in areas like clean energy, supply-chain resilience and digital trade.”They (the Biden administration) were very averse to doing a bilateral agreement. From the Indian perspective, actually working out something bilaterally with the United States is not at all a sort of a negative or a sort of an unwanted situation,” Jaishankar said.”On the contrary, it is something which has long been our objective,” he added.Talking about India’s engagement with European nations in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war and the US tariffs, Jaishankar said, it has been New Delhi’s endeavour to have negotiations with Europe on a free trade deal.”I am pretty confident that just as we are seeing a very intense engagement with the US, and by the way, with the UK as well, I expect the pace to pick up with Europe,” he said.”We have an aspirational goal. We’d like to close out the FTA this year,” he said.India is also negotiating a trade deal with the UK.
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