U.S. senator concludes visit to India to persuade leaders to include ‘favourable’ pulse provisions in future FTA

U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor on Tuesday (January 20, 2026) said he would ensure that senior officials of the U.S. Government regularly travel to India, even as U.S. Senator Steve Daines concluded a two-day visit to India during which he tried to persuade the Indian side to include “favourable” pulse crop provisions in a future trade deal.

During his visit, Mr. Daines met Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar, Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, members of parliament, and U.S. and Indian business leaders.

“I came to India to reaffirm our two countries’ shared values and strategic partnership and to advocate on behalf of Montana’s pulse crop farmers,” Mr. Daines said in a press statement. “I appreciated Minister Goyal for listening to our farmers’ concerns and will continue to work with President Trump to press this important priority.”

A release by the U.S. embassy in New Delhi added that Mr. Daines “pursued interests of the Trump Administration as well as the people of Montana, including urging favourable pulse crop provisions in any future trade agreements between the United States and India”.

The issue of allowing agricultural imports has been a sensitive one for India, which has resisted the inclusion of sensitive agricultural products in any free trade agreement it has signed so far. Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal has confirmed that sensitive agricultural issues would be excluded from the upcoming India-EU free trade agreement as well.

The U.S., however, is a different matter as even Indian Government officials have conceded that the bigger the economy we are dealing with, the larger the concessions we would have to give. However, agriculture and dairy remain “big red lines” for India, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in June 2025.

Following his meeting with Mr. Daines, Mr. Goyal took to X to say that Mr. Gor, Mr. Daines and he had had a “productive exchange of views on our bilateral relationship”.

“As we work to take the partnership between our two nations to the next level in cooperation, I will ensure that senior government officials will regularly travel to India,” Mr. Gor said.

“As a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with extensive experience in Asia, Senator Daines’ meetings with official and private sector stakeholders in New Delhi were instrumental in advancing our bilateral relationship,” he added.

According to the release by the U.S. embassy, Mr. Daines met senior Indian officials and parliamentarians and discussed growing U.S.-India defence cooperation, mutual efforts to secure supply chains, and the importance of the U.S.-India strategic partnership to ensure shared security and “preserving a stable and open Indo-Pacific region”.

“Sen. Daines sought acceleration of the active and ongoing talks towards concluding a fair and reciprocal bilateral trade deal,” the release added. Sen. Daines spoke with representatives of the business community to highlight the many opportunities to deepen cooperation on advanced technologies and expand trade and investment ties to enhance prosperity in both the United States and India.”