Seeking diplomatic balance from the American perspective, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that while his country is seeking to expand its “strategic relationship” with Pakistan, those ties don’t come at the expense of relations with India.
Calling it part of “a mature, pragmatic foreign policy”, Rubio underlined that India, too, has ties with countries that the US doesn’t.
“Vice versa applies,” Rubio, among the topmost officials in Donald Trump’s administration, told reporters on Saturday onboard a flight to Doha, further on way to Malaysia and other countries as part of Trump’s eastward trip.
“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 said, according to news agency Bloomberg.
An apparent US pivot toward Pakistan under Trump has irked India, for it also coincides with a chill in Washington-Delhi ties amid massive tariffs imposed by a mercurial US President.
Also, India and Pakistan have been clubbed in Trump’s rhetoric about stopping wars and claims to a Nobel Peace Prize too.
Trump continues to claim that he brokered, even forced, a ceasefire when the two nuclear-armed neighbours got into a military conflict in May.
He has pointedly claimed he used tariffs as a threat to secure a truce — a claim rejected by India.
Pakistan has, however, hailed Trump’s intervention and nominated him for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Rubio claimed he had reached out to Islamabad even before any conflict with Delhi began, saying that the Trump administration is “interested in rebuilding an alliance, a strategic partnership”.
“Look, we’re fully aware of the challenges with regards to India and everything else, but our job is to try to create opportunities for partnerships with countries where it’s possible,” Rubio said.
“And we’ve had a long history of partnering with Pakistan on counter-terror and things of that nature. We’d like to expand it beyond that, if possible,” he further said.
Trump has hit India with 50% tariffs on its exports to the US — half of that charcaterised as “sanctions” or “penalty” for India’s oil trade with Russia despite the Ukraine war — far higher than Pakistan’s 19% rate. The US recent signed deals with Pakistan on mining of critical minerals and oil, and Trump continues to hail PM Shehbaz Sharif and Pak Army chief Asim Munir as “great leaders”, a term he also uses for Indian PM Narendra Modi often.
Rubio arrived in Malaysia on Sunday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit along with Trump. PM Modi skipped the summit, missing out a possible meeting with Trump.
Furthering his peacemaker claims, Trump on Sunday oversaw the signing of a truce agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. He gain made reference to Shehbaz Sharif and Asim Munir as “great people”.
Rubio is set to meet India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit on Monday, possibly to discuss ongoing trade deal negotiations and the Russian oil issue.
While India has said it reserves teh right to decide whom it buys from, Rubio said Delhi has informed the US about its intention to diversify oil supplies and buy more from the US. “The more we sell them, the less they’ll buy from someone else,” he said.
Trump has been more direct in his assertions on this issue, saying Modi told him India would stop the Russian purchases — a claim India has diplomatically denied.
The US says India’s buying oil is helping finance President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. India is among the largest buyers of Russian crude, which makes up about a third of the nation’s total oil imports. The US’s move last week to sanction two major Russian oil suppliers has sent Indian buyers looking at alternate sources, Bloomberg reported.
