New Delhi, May 24: India and the US on Sunday sought to signal a reset in their strained ties as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his American counterpart Marco Rubio held frank discussions on thorny issues such as trade, visas, energy security, cross-border terrorism and the implications of the West Asia conflict.
Rubio, who is on a four-day visit to the country, described New Delhi as a major power and dismissed observations that the US-India relationship has lost its two-decade momentum, firmly asserting that the engagement will grow much stronger by the end of the current administration’s tenure.
In a clear statement of India’s foreign policy priorities, Jaishankar outlined a strategic five-point blueprint for global stability, asserting that India advocates dialogue and diplomacy to address conflicts, supports unimpeded maritime commerce, demands respect for international law and is against “weaponisation” of market shares and resources.
In their first comprehensive dialogue after the India-US ties witnessed major downturn, the two sides primarily focused on vigorously bolstering cooperation in areas of defence, critical minerals, high technology and economic engagement.
“The US-India relationship has not lost any momentum. I understand why some people might say that. I don’t understand, but I understand some people say that. This is not about India. This is about the United States in terms of trade,” Rubio said at a joint press conference with Jaishankar while responding to a question from PTI.
Rubio called India an important strategic partner of the US and stressed that both sides are aligned on a range of key issues. “India is an important strategic partner of the United States, one of our most important strategic partners in the world,” he said.
The relations between the two countries witnessed a major downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India and President Donald Trump made controversial assertions regarding his role in de-escalating the India-Pakistan military clashes last May.
“Let me state India’s broad position… And I would make five points here. One, that we advocate dialogue and diplomacy to address conflicts. Two, we support safe and unimpeded maritime commerce,” Jaishankar said.
“Three, we demand scrupulous respect for international law. Four, we are against the weaponisation of market shares and resources. And five, we believe in the value of trusted partnerships and resilient supply chains to de-risk the global economy,” he said.
In the talks, Jaishankar forcefully mentioned about how the West Asia crisis has significantly hit India’s energy security and brought economic woes, people familiar with the matter said.
The external affairs minister also underlined the importance for India to have multiple sources of energy, emphasising that the energy market should not be “distorted”.
“The way we will deal with the current situation in Hormuz and frankly, going forward as well, is to diversify our energy sources, because that is at the heart of our energy security, and that is why we feel strongly that the energy market should not be distorted, should not be constrained.
“It is important to keep energy prices down for global growth,” he said.
Jaishankar said India is one of the very few countries that have very good relations with the United States, Israel, Iran and the Gulf countries.
“So we have real interest there. For us, the challenge in this situation is how to maintain all these relationships, how to protect our equities, how to advance our interests. We don’t look at it as a zero-sum game,” he said.
“We have to manage and take care of all these accounts. I would say there are some general principles by which we would approach this region.
“Obviously, we want peace and stability in the region,” he said.
The external affairs minister said India is very much in favour of safe and unimpeded maritime commerce in the Strait of Hormuz.
In the context of energy security, Jaishankar said that there has been a “very significant uptick” in India’s energy imports from the US.
“India and the United States both have a very strong interest in ensuring that there is safe and unimpeded maritime commerce. We also have a very strong interest in ensuring that globally energy prices are kept low and that energy sources are more available,” he said.
Citing fragile geopolitical situation, Jaishankar said India has very strong relations with the US, Russia, Europe, Ukraine and countries around the world.
“The question then is how do you manage all of them. So in that sense, it is multi-alignment because today’s India has that range of interests which require us to manage multiple accounts.”
The external affairs minister also flagged India’s concerns with Rubio over the Trump administration’s changes to visa and immigration policies, saying legal mobility should not be adversely impacted by the new approach.
The US Secretary of State acknowledged that there could be “some bumps” and “friction points” in the period of transition as the US is trying to improve the immigration system but ultimately an “efficient” framework will be helpful to every stakeholder.
The Secretary of State said the current process to reform the immigration system is not targeted at India at all.
“Anytime you undertake a reform, any time you undertake a change in the system by which you admit people, there’s going to be a period of transition that’s going to create some friction points and some difficulties,” he said.
“It is not a system that is targeted at India; it is one that’s being applied globally. But we’re in a period of transition, and like any period of transition, there’s going to be some bumps on that road.”
Answering a question on economic ties, Rubio said India and the US are poised to soon firm up the much-awaited trade agreement that will be both “beneficial” and “sustainable” and would advance the mutual interests of both nations.
“We’ve made tremendous progress, and I think we’re going to wind up with a trade agreement between the US and India that is going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides and sustainable in a way that addresses national interest that we have,” he said.
To a question on Washington’s increasingly warm ties with Pakistan and China, Rubio said: “As far as our relations with other countries are concerned, we have relations and we work at the tactical level in many ways with countries all over the world, so does India, like every other responsible nation.”
“But I don’t view our ties with any country in the world as coming at the expense of our strategic alliance with India,” he said.
In his remarks, Jaishankar also talked about shared challenges of India and the US.
“Prominent among them is terrorism. Our position in that regard is very clear. It is one of zero tolerance. We appreciate the strong cooperation between the concerned agencies of our two countries in this domain,” he said.
“I particularly recognised the extradition from the United States to India last year of a key planner of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Our two countries will intensify cooperation bilaterally, as well as in relevant international forums. We will continue to collaborate closely on countering illegal trade,” he said.
Hours later, Jaishankar described his talks with Rubio as “good discussions”.
“Reviewed the entire spectrum of our Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, including trade and energy, defence and security, critical minerals and AI, nuclear and people-to-people, counter-terror and counter-narcotics cooperation,” he said on X.
“Look forward to joining Secretary Rubio and our colleagues from Australia and Japan for the QUAD Foreign Ministers’ meeting on Tuesday,” he said.
Rubio also met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval.
“The discussions focused on defence, security and strategic technology related cooperation including the TRUST initiative,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“The two NSAs reiterated the high priority accorded to the bilateral Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. They also exchanged views on regional and global issues,” he said.
Rubio also holds the post of National Security Advisor in the Trump administration.
“Secretary Rubio joined an important meeting with NSA Doval focused on counterterrorism cooperation, regional stability and strengthening US-India strategic coordination in the Indo-Pacific. Our partnership continues to grow stronger in support of shared security interests,” the US embassy said.
Secretary Rubio’s “message is clear. Our relationship with India matters. Our strategic partnership with India is real. We have incredible potential ahead,” Ambassador Sergio Gor said in a post on X. (PTI)
