Seeking to strike a diplomatic balance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emphasised that Washington’s efforts to strengthen its “strategic relationship” with Pakistan will not come at the cost of its long-standing partnership with India.
Calling it part of “a mature, pragmatic foreign policy”, Rubio pointed out that India, too, maintains relations with countries that the United States does not.
“Vice versa applies,” Rubio said on Saturday, speaking to reporters aboard a flight to Doha, en route to Malaysia and other Asian nations as part of President Donald Trump’s eastward tour.
“I don’t think anything we’re doing with Pakistan comes at the expense of our relationship or friendship with India, which is deep, historic, and important,” he told journalists, according to Bloomberg.
The comments come amid perceptions of a renewed US tilt towards Pakistan under the Trump administration, a move that has unsettled New Delhi. The shift coincides with a downturn in US-India relations, exacerbated by hefty tariffs imposed by President Trump on Indian exports.
Trump has often grouped India and Pakistan in his rhetoric about ending wars, even citing his claimed mediation between the two nuclear neighbours as grounds for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. He has repeatedly asserted that he “brokered a ceasefire” between the countries during their military standoff in May, a claim India has firmly rejected. Pakistan, on the other hand, has praised Trump’s intervention and formally nominated him for the prize.
Rubio said he had engaged with Islamabad even before tensions with New Delhi escalated, stressing that the administration sought to “rebuild an alliance” and establish a broader strategic partnership.
“Look, we’re fully aware of the challenges with regard to India and everything else,” Rubio said. “But our job is to create opportunities for partnerships with countries where it’s possible. We’ve had a long history of partnering with Pakistan on counter-terrorism and similar issues, and we’d like to expand that, if possible.”
The Trump administration has recently imposed 50% tariffs on Indian exports to the US, half of which are described as “sanctions” linked to India’s continued oil trade with Russia despite the war in Ukraine. Pakistan, by contrast, faces a 19% tariff rate.
Washington has also signed new deals with Islamabad on critical mineral mining and oil exploration, with Trump repeatedly referring to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Asim Munir as “great leaders”, a description he also frequently applies to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rubio arrived in Malaysia on Sunday to attend the ASEAN Summit alongside Trump. Prime Minister Modi skipped the summit, missing what could have been a bilateral meeting with the US President.
Continuing his self-styled role as a “peacemaker”, Trump oversaw the signing of a truce between Thailand and Cambodia during the summit, once again praising Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir as “great people.”
Rubio is scheduled to meet India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the summit on Monday to discuss ongoing trade negotiations and the issue of Russian oil imports.
While India has maintained that it reserves the right to decide from whom it purchases energy, Rubio said New Delhi has indicated its intent to diversify supplies and buy more oil from the US.
“The more we sell them, the less they’ll buy from someone else,” he said.
Trump, however, has claimed that Modi personally assured him that India would stop buying Russian crude, a statement India has diplomatically denied.
Washington argues that India’s purchases of Russian oil indirectly help fund President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. India remains one of the world’s largest importers of Russian crude, which accounts for roughly one-third of its total oil imports.
According to Bloomberg, the US move last week to sanction two major Russian oil suppliers has prompted Indian refiners to seek alternative sources of supply.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
