Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 5 (ANI): Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday announced the opening of two new Apple stores in India, located in Bengaluru and Pune.

With this launch, Apple now has four official stores in the country. The first two were Apple BKC in Mumbai and Apple Saket in Delhi, followed by the newly announced Apple Hebbal in Bengaluru and Apple Koregaon Park in Pune.

Taking to social media platform X, Cook said, 'Say hello to Apple Hebbal in Bengaluru and Apple Koregaon Park in Pune! We are thrilled to continue to bring the best of Apple to customers across India at these two new stores.'

https://x.com/tim_cook/status/1963628857925472393

The announcement comes against the backdrop of ongoing trade negotiations between India and the United States.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had in May said that trade talks were still underway, emphasising that any deal must be mutually beneficial.

'On the trade remarks. Let me say this that look between India and US trade talks have been going on, negotiations have been going on. In fact, we have, I think our team is just going at this point. These are very complicated negotiations. They are very intricate, intricate,' he said.

He added that no decision had been made yet and cautioned against premature judgments. 'Nothing is decided, you know. But any trade deal, any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial. Any trade deal has to work for both the countries, and I think that would be our expectation from the trade deal and until that is done, I think any judgement on it would be premature,' he said.

The trade negotiations were also highlighted by then US President Donald Trump, who claimed that India had offered the US a nearly no-tariff deal on a reciprocal basis. 'They have offered us a deal where we're basically they're willing to literally charge us no tariff,' Trump said while addressing a news conference in Doha.

Trump also addressed Apple CEO Tim Cook's manufacturing plans, urging him to expand production in the US instead of India. 'I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday. I said to him, my friend, I am treating you very good. You are coming up with $500 billion, but now I hear you are building all over India. I don't want you building in India. You can build in India, if you want to take care of India because India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world, so it is very hard to sell in India,' Trump said.

India stands as Apple's fourth-largest market globally in 2024, after the US, China, and Japan. (ANI)