“Like America First, we have view of India First”: EAM Jaishankar tells Marco Rubio to his face

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]I have one question on expectations from the Trump administration, three questions on energy which sort of overlap and one question on the quad. So I'll take them in that order. I think look where uh the United States is concerned. The Trump administration has been very forthright in putting forward its foreign policy outlook uh as America first. Now where we are concerned we have a view of India first. Uh so both of us are obviously driven by our uh respective national interests. There will be many areas uh where our national interests uh are in harmony and we work together which is why we have a strategic partnership. There could be some uh where they don't uh in which case we have to manage uh those situations. Uh where uh the energy issues are concerned. Again look I I want to say for our energy security it's important we have multiple sources large sources dependable sources cheap sources.

[00:01:11]So uh and uh the United States uh because that was the first question uh fits the bill in many respects. So do some other countries. Uh so we will continue to diversify and maintain uh multiple sources of supply uh at the most reasonable cost because at the end of the day we have an obligation to our people to provide them energy at affordable and accessible uh rates. uh now what we don't want to see we don't want to see energy markets distorted we don't want to see energy markets constricted because it has a cost implication so uh the the question which was asked did we discuss that yes we discussed that and you know I certainly expressed the Indian point of view that you know we strongly believe that energy markets should be left uh uh you know to to the market uh where uh the quad is concerned uh uh you know I'm I'm glad you use the word maritime democracies because uh both both terms I think are very relevant uh we will we are doing a lot with each other because we are maritime powers and I see that growing and we are doing a lot with each other because we are democratic powers uh who who have a certain way of uh doing things who have a certain belief system who have certain practices. Uh we have we are market economies. We are open societies. Uh we want uh business to be conducted and life to run on the basis of uh uh international law and uh uh you know market practices. So for us uh particularly in the Indoacific which as I've already stated I see as gaining importance in salience in the coming days. It's very important that the quad cooperation as maritime democracies continue and that is exactly what you will see 2 days from now. Thank you.