‘Not at the expense of alliance with India’: Marco Rubio clarifies on US ties with Pakistan

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday rejected suggestions that India-US ties had lost momentum under the Donald Trump administration. He said Washington’s engagement with other countries, including Pakistan, does not come at the expense of its strategic partnership with India.

Speaking at a joint press conference with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi, Rubio was asked about concerns in India over tariffs, a more transactional US approach, and what some observers see as mixed signals from Washington on Pakistan and China.

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“The US-India relationship has not lost any momentum. I don’t understand why some people might say that. I don’t understand, but I understand some people say that, but I don’t see it or view that in any way, shape, or form,” Rubio said. 

He argued that recent trade frictions emerged from a broader effort by President Donald Trump to rebalance global trade rather than any India-specific policy. “The president did not say, let’s figure out a way to create friction with India over trade. The President came in and said we have a trade situation involving the US economy that doesn’t work moving forward. There’s a huge imbalance that’s built up, and it needs to be addressed.”

Rubio said the administration’s trade agenda had been applied globally. “As Secretary of State, there virtually is no country in the world that I could travel to that isn’t going to raise the issue of trade because we did this from a global perspective.”

He said Washington was on the verge of making a trade agreement with India. “We’ve made tremendous progress, and I think we’re going to wind up with a trade agreement between the United States and India that’s going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides.”

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Rubio then addressed concerns about Washington’s ties with other countries, including Pakistan. Under Trump’s second term, the US has expanded engagement with Pakistan, while Trump has publicly praised Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir and hosted him at the White House. Pakistan has also emerged as a mediator in the Iran conflict.

The visiting secretary dismissed the suggestion that such engagement undermined India-US relations. “As far as our relations with other countries, we have relations, and we work at the tactical level, for example, and in many other ways with countries all over the world. So does India. That’s what responsible nation states do.”

“I don’t view our relation with any country in the world as coming at the expense of our strategic alliance with India for the reasons I’ve outlined here already earlier today,” he added. 

Rubio’s remarks are the clearest public assurance yet from the Trump administration that its growing interactions with Pakistan are not intended to dilute Washington’s strategic partnership with India.