On October 24, 2025, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal spoke at the Berlin Global Dialogue about India’s trade talks. “We do not do deals in a hurry and we do not do deals with deadlines or with a gun to our head,” he said, as ThePrint reported.
The Diwali Deadline
India and the United Kingdom opened talks on a free trade agreement in January 2022. On April 22, 2022, during a visit to India, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted the deal done by Diwali that year. On October 14, 2022, Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said: “We are no longer working to the Diwali deadline.”
The negotiations concluded on May 6, 2025. Piyush Goyal and the British business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, signed the agreement at Chequers on July 24, 2025. Dawn described “three years of stop-start negotiations.”
Eighty Rounds
In 1997 the government of India and the NSCN-IM, a Naga armed group, agreed a ceasefire. On August 3, 2015, in New Delhi, the two sides signed a Framework Agreement in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Tribune counted more than 80 rounds of talks over about 18 years.
By late 2020 there was still no final settlement. The group insisted on a separate Naga flag and constitution, and the government’s interlocutor, R.N. Ravi, accused it of a “procrastinating attitude.” In November 2020 the NSCN-IM answered: “Our patience should not be translated as weak and helpless.”
The Vocabulary of Patience
Jaldi ka kaam shaitan ka aur der ka kaam Rahman ka. Haste is the work of the devil, and delay is the work of the Merciful. The Rekhta dictionary explains that people say it when someone hurries, because work done in haste is more likely to go wrong.
Sabr ka phal meetha hota hai. The fruit of patience is sweet. Rekhta’s Hindi gloss: patience brings a good result.
Nine Years over the Indus
India and Pakistan began negotiating over the waters of the Indus basin in 1951. From 1952 the World Bank mediated. The Indus Waters Treaty was signed on September 19, 1960. The World Bank’s own archive speaks of “nine years” of talks in one place and of “over a decade of negotiations” in another.
Fruit in Its Season
Dheere dheere re mana, dheere sab kuchh hoye. Maali seenche sau ghada, ritu aaye phal hoye.
Slowly, O mind, everything happens slowly. The gardener may pour a hundred pots of water, but the fruit comes when its season comes. The couplet is by the poet Kabir, who lived in the 15th and early 16th centuries.
Eighteen Years of Talks
Negotiations on a free trade agreement between India and the European Union began on June 28, 2007. They stalled in 2013. On June 17, 2022, the two sides formally relaunched them. The conclusion of the negotiations was announced on January 27, 2026, at a summit at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
Just Five Minutes
Bas paanch minute. Just five minutes. In its video series Desi D, The Quint jokes about Indian stretchable time and about people who “say they are just five minutes away” when they are not even ready.