NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs on Thursday rebutted a Bloomberg report which claimed that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had a meeting with US secretary of state Marco Rubio before New Delhi And Washington reached an agreement on the trade deal.In a weekly press briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal called the report baseless and said that no such meeting took place.”There is absolutely no basis of that report. No such meeting or visit took place,” Jaiswal said.Also read | India won’t be bullied by Trump, Doval told Rubio; govt was willing to wait out US president’s term, says reportEarlier on Wednesday, news outlet Bloomberg reported that Doval met Rubio in September last year and told him that Narendra Modi-led government was willing to wait out US President Donald Trump’s term for the trade agreement if Washington does not dial down public criticism of New Delhi.Doval also reportedly told Rubio that India won’t be bullied by Trump or his top aides.Also read| India-US trade deal: How Delhi’s behind-the-scenes push cracked Trump tariff wallThis comes after the US President announced a trade deal with India on Monday, slashing tariffs from 50 per cent to 18 per cent.“It was an Honor to speak with Prime Minister Modi, of India, this morning. He is one of my greatest friends and, a Powerful and Respected Leader of his Country. We spoke about many things, including Trade, and ending the War with Russia and Ukraine. He agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela,” Trump announced in a social media post on Truth Social.Earlier on Tuesday, Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal said that the “much-awaited trade deal” with the US has been successfully concluded.
