Ties with Pakistan won’t come at India’s cost, says Marco Rubio

The US Secretary of State said US tariffs linked to Russian oil purchases could strain economic ties with India.

Mumbai: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington’s ties with Pakistan, or with any other country, will never come at the cost of its relationship with India, rejecting comparisons with the Nixon-era US tilt towards Islamabad.

In an interview with The Indian Express (IE) during his second visit to India this year, Rubio said the world today looks nothing like it did in the 1970s, when the Cold War shaped US policy in the region.

“Our relationship with no country in the world, in any way, comes at the expense of our relationship with India,” he told IE.

The US has a relationship with Pakistan and needs one, he said, adding that it could even be useful if Washington used its influence to discourage actions that might lead to conflict.

He cited his visits, the push for a trade deal and the range of joint work as evidence of US commitment to India. 

The Trump administration’s warmth towards Pakistan and its military leadership has caused unease in New Delhi.

Russian oil sanctions, or the lack of it

Rubio admitted that US tariffs linked to Russian oil purchases could strain economic ties with India, but said none of them were meant to punish or harm the country.

One reason President Donald Trump did not impose the tariffs required under a law passed by Congress was that he knew it would seriously hurt an important relationship with India, Rubio said. Trump had faced criticism at home for issuing the waivers, he added.

Trump signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act on September 18. It provided for tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods from the five largest buyers of Russian crude and gas. On October 16, days before they were due to take effect, he waived the measures through an executive order, citing national interest. 

The waiver can be withdrawn at any time.

Rubio described it as a balancing act between pressing Russia and Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war and avoiding damage to other important relationships. “It will be a challenge,” he said.

US-India trade deal ‘weeks away’

On the trade agreement between the US and India, under negotiation for about 18 months, Rubio said the two sides were “weeks, not months” away from finalising it.

“I think 99 per cent of the work is done,” he said.

He declined to spell out the sticking points but said they were not technicalities. What remained, he said, was agreeing on what certain words and phrases meant, since both sides must be in full agreement or the deal could unravel later.

Rubio called trade an irritant in ties but said cooperation in other areas, such as the Quad, had continued. His first meeting after taking office was with the Quad grouping, and he has met his Indian counterpart more than a dozen times since, he said.

On visit to Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery

Rubio, who is set to visit Reliance Industries’ refinery complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat on Wednesday, October 21, said India, and Reliance in particular, was one of the few places outside the US Gulf Coast that could refine Venezuela‘s heavy crude. He said Venezuela’s output was set to rise rapidly.

He described Reliance’s investment in a new refinery in Texas as one of the first refining expansions in the US in recent times. The visit was aimed at the shared goal of diversifying energy sources, so that the world was not dependent on one conflict-prone region, he said.

Asked about Elon Musk‘s recent charge that the Ambanis had blocked Starlink’s entry into India, Rubio said Musk was a private citizen entitled to free speech and declined to comment further.

Ukraine, China, visas

Rubio said he had reviewed the text of a Black Sea ceasefire proposal that India had drafted about 10 days earlier and praised Indian diplomats for trying to bring Russia and Ukraine together. But strikes in the Black Sea held strategic value for both sides, which made a truce hard to achieve, he said.

He rejected the view that the Trump administration had gone soft on China, saying it was seeking “strategic stability” with Beijing while acting on concerns through steps such as export controls. A US-China trade war would be devastating for the global economy, India included, he said.

On concerns among Indians over visa curbs, the H-1B debate and anti-immigrant rhetoric, Rubio said the changes applied globally and were not aimed at India. He claimed 20 million people had entered the US unlawfully during the Joe Biden administration.

“The biggest threat to legal immigration is illegal immigration,” he said, adding that he heard visa complaints in almost every country he visited.

He did not respond directly to a question that also referred to a recently foiled plot to attack a Hindu temple in Illinois, even as more than 100 US lawmakers have asked FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate the attempted mass shooting as a federal hate crime.