Photo: PIBIndia and the United States have made “very significant progress” in their ongoing trade deal negotiations and are “very close” to a positive outcome, government sources told NDTV, even as New Delhi concluded the political phase of its free trade agreement with the European Union. Rejecting suggestions that the India-EU agreement was used as a bargaining tool in talks with Washington, sources said the US did not figure in the final-day restricted discussions with the EU. “There was not a single mention” of the United States, they said, stressing that the EU deal was pursued on its own merits and timeline. They said Indian and American negotiators remained in touch even as the EU talks reached their endgame, and discussions with the US are continuing. The emphasis, they said, is on sequencing rather than substitution, with India continuing to pursue multiple bilateral negotiations in parallel.