Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the United States later this year for the G20 Summit. The confirmation came from US Ambassador Sergio Gor on Monday, alongside assurances that a heavily anticipated trade deal between the two countries would conclude “sooner rather than later”. Top officials from India and the United States will also convene in the Philippines in about two weeks for a “crucial, high-level Quad meeting”.
“Secretary Marco Rubio invited PM Modi while visiting him… We love to have him back here. And I know he’s coming in December for the G20,” Gor told ANI on the sidelines of the USISPF Leadership Summit.
Indian authorities are yet to confirm the December visit or disclose itinerary details. The 2026 G20 Summit is slated to take place in Miami, Florida, on December 14 and 15 — the first time the US will be hosting since 2009. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier extended an official invitation on behalf of President Donald Trump for Prime Minister Modi to visit the White House in the near future. The invitation was formally communicated during his trip to India from May 23 to 26.
Trump to visit India?
The update also comes days after top US officials revealed that they were working on plans for Trump to visit India next year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had confirmed on Saturday that efforts were underway to arrange a trip in early 2027.
“We’re hoping that’s what we’re working towards – sometime early next year to have the President come. I think it’s very positive. India is such a close partner and ally of the United States, and the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President couldn’t be closer, which I think is really important in diplomacy,” Rubio had told IANS.
“It’s not any time during the midterms. It has to be sometime next year… We would love to make that happen sooner rather than later,” Gor clarified on Monday.
India-US trade deal imminent
India and the United States had inked an interim trade deal in February, and efforts remain underway to finalise the long-awaited agreement. Trump said during his meeting with Modi earlier this month that the two countries have been ‘very close’ to finalising a trade deal for some time. Multiple officials have echoed the sentiment, but two days of high-level ministerial trade talks between Piyush Goyal and USTR Jamieson Greer concluded without a breakthrough last week.
Gor maintained on Monda that the negotiations are moving forward smoothly, even though the pact encompasses thousands of individual lines and demands comprehensive legal scrutiny.
“Ambassador Greer has the President’s full confidence, and so we are getting close to finalising that. But these things are complex legal matters, and this is not one page. We have thousands of items between our two nations that we are working on. And so the fact that we’ve gone so far, that is a great sign for the relationship, and I am hopeful that we will be able to wrap this up sooner rather than later,” he told ANI.
Why has there been a delay in finalising the India-US trade deal?
Goyal said recently that the trade deal with the US is “very close” but added that it could not come into force unless India secured a competitive tariff advantage over its competitor nations. New Delhi has been working to reassess the deal following a US Supreme Court verdict that deemed Trump’s sweeping ‘reciprocal tariffs’ illegal earlier this year.
India had held a comparative advantage over competitor countries when the framework of the bilateral trade agreement was first finalised. Tariffs had ranged from 19% to 20% for these countries, while India was set to face an 18% levy under the framework. But the US Supreme Court verdict and subsequent announcements from the Trump government have now left all countries facing the same 10% additional tariff rate.
“That trade deal, we thought, was done until the Supreme Court decided to have another way. And so we continue to pursue that, and we are very close. Just last week, US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Lee Greer visited us in New Delhi for two days, and we are hopefully in the final steps of this deal. Most of this deal is complete. There are a few items that remain from both sides, but it’s in the last 1 or 2 per cent of that deal,” Gor explained during the summit.