Says connect between two leaders is personal, briefs PM on cooperation in various sectors
New Delhi:United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio “shared the US perspective on various regional and global issues, including the situation in West Asia” while calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday afternoon, in a meeting that reportedly lasted over an hour. The “Prime Minister reaffirmed India’s consistent support for peace efforts and reiterated the call for peaceful resolution of the conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy”, the PMO said in a statement.
Rubio, who began his four-day visit to India on Saturday, landed in New Delhi in the afternoon from Kolkata and soon after “briefed Modi on the sustained progress in bilateral cooperation across a wide range of sectors, including defence, strategic technologies, trade and investment, energy security, connectivity, education and people-to-people ties”, the PMO added.
On the meeting, Rubio posted on X, “In New Delhi, I met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to underscore the importance of the US-India relationship. We discussed the situation in the Middle East and US-India partnership in energy, securing critical supply chains, and collaboration on emerging technologies.”
Meanwhile, on behalf of President Trump, Rubio invited Modi to visit the White House. “I was pleased to invite Prime Minister Modi to the White House on behalf of the President,” Rubio said. Later he told reporters that the connect between the two leaders was “personal” that went back to President Trump’s first tenure.
International news reports cited a US official accompanying Rubio as saying that the US Secretary of State told Modi that the “United States will not let Iran hold the global energy market hostage” and also “affirmed that US energy products have the potential to diversify India's energy supply”.
According to media reports, the Indian side also raised concerns with Rubio over the continuing crisis in West Asia including the situation at the Straits of Hormuz and its implications for global energy supplies and prices on developing nations. It may be noted that the US had earlier given a sanctions-waiver enabling India to continue buying Russian oil and New Delhi is expected to continue emphasising its importance regarding India’s energy security to the US side. Rubio had also indicated ahead of the meeting that India can also buy Venezuelan oil. Rubio later told a TV channel that the Iran crisis would be resolved "one way or the other", implying both options of diplomacy (through Qatar and Pakistan-backed mediation) or else possible further American military strikes on Iran.
The PMO too said that the “Prime Minister requested Secretary Rubio to convey his warm greetings to United States President Donald Trump and said that he looked forward to their continued exchanges”. The meeting was also attended by others including external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval from the Indian side and American Ambassador Sergio Gor and others from the US side. Rubio will hold detailed bilateral talks with Jaishankar on Sunday morning at the Hyderabad House.
Speaking later at a function at the US Embassy, Rubio outlined the importance of bilateral ties. “The relationship between our two countries is at the cornerstone of our approach to the Indo-Pacific...My very first meeting officially as Secretary of State was a meeting of the Quad... We wanted to do it here, not just because of our commitment to that structure of work, but also as a tangible sign of what an important role India plays in the United States and in our posture and in our approach to the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
Rubio also mentioned how the two nations had deepened their security partnership including through military exercises in the Indo-Pacific. Seeking to dispel the widespread perception that President Trump had lost interest in the Quad while warming up to China, the US Secretary of State later told a TV channel that the four-nation Quad mechanism had never lost any relevance and continued to be relevant. This comes ahead of the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) in New Delhi on May 26 that will be chaired by Jaishankar and attended by Rubio along with the Japanese and Australian foreign ministers.
At the US Embassy while announcing an initiative on visas, Rubio said, “We're introducing a new America First visa schedule that prioritises business professionals that strengthen these ties. But the facility, as I said, is not just for those who are applying for visas. It's also for you, the Americans who work here, the men and women of this mission, who are at the front lines every single day of advancing America's national interest and America's national security. This facility saved Americans money because it's going to make us more efficient. It's going to allow us to do the work we have to do anyways, but allow us to do it more accurately, faster, and in a more efficient way.” On the commercial side of ties, Rubio pointed out that over US$ 20 billion in investments had been made by Indian companies in the US.
Later, the US Ambassador told reporters that bilateral ties are on a “solid footing” and that both nations advance the idea of a “free and open Indo-Pacific”.
