India-US negotiations on a trade deal are going on in full speed, according to Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who recently said she was hopeful of an agreement being signed soon. The negotiations came up for discussion during a pull-aside between Sitharaman and US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters.

Nirmala Sitharaman was in the United States to attend the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

“In fact, I broadly mentioned it to [US treasury] secretary [Steven] Mnuchin, but that is something on which the commerce minister and [US trade representative] Mr [Robert] Lighthizer are working,” Sitharaman said on October 19.

“My inputs are that the negotiations are going in full speed and there is a great intensity with which both sides are engaging and hopefully the deal will be struck soon,” she was quoted as saying by a news agency.

The ongoing trade deal negotiations briefly came up for discussion during a pull-aside between Sitharaman and Mnuchin at the IMF headquarters. Mnuchin is scheduled to visit India early next month.

India has not faced the brunt of the global slowdown as much and other economies, SItharaman said.

The two sides agreed to continue the dialogue in the first week of November during Mnuchin’s visit to New Delhi.