Marco Rubio Pushes To Repair US-India Ties After Trump Tariffs

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]I can't hear you. I love India. I love India. So I know you're there and I hope you're making good speech. You have to be representative of our country. So I just want to say hello to everybody. I love the prime minister. Body is great, my friend. And I just want to say a very to everybody this morning here in this evening.

[00:00:34]Who is it?

[00:00:58]The president's a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi. I wouldn't be here if the president didn't want me to be here. He cares. He wouldn't have sent someone like Sergio to be our ambassador.

[00:01:14]Well, they're different countries obviously, but India is a big country. I mean, it's, you know, most populous country in the world. Uh, it's a democracy. It's a strong strategic ally of the United States. China has the second largest economy in the world. Uh, the United States has to deal with both of these countries, but clearly our alliance with India is something we're highlighting here today. So, you always learn something when you go on these trips. But these are two countries I had paid a lot of attention to even during my time in the Senate for obvious reasons. the the big important countries.

[00:01:40]>> This visit of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is obviously intended to stabilize a relationship which has seen difficulties over the last year. Uh Secretary of State Marco Dubio has made uh all the right uh moves. He said all the right things. uh but substantively I think the jury is still out in terms of how the relationship will move forward.

[00:02:10]Secretary of State Rubio has signaled uh the importance of India continued importance of India as a democracy as a strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. So uh let's see how this unfolds in terms of how the US now seeks to shape its policy in the Indo-Pacific region because there's been the outreach to China. There's been the warming relationship with Pakistan.

[00:02:53]I think uh the quad is still relevant.

[00:02:55]It brings together four maritime democracies which have largely converging interests in the Indo-Pacific. It is not a defense alliance and India does not see it as an Asian NATO.

[00:03:12]uh but it's a it's a grouping which can work uh on several strategic areas together including I would say uh the uh putting in place of alternative resilient supply chains and critical minerals.

[00:03:31]>> May I now request both the leaders to please sign the document.

[00:03:51]We're two countries who have a strategic uh interests in ensuring uh reliable long-term access to critical minerals and supply chains that are important for our innovation economy. And and today's a tangible result of that. tangible evidence of of why it is we are strategic allies forum that we hosted in Washington DC. It had gained momentum later that month when India signed on to PASIL as one of the first and early members and signatorries. And now today um because we both have a strategic and shared interest in the fact that vibrant innovation economies such as ours cannot afford to leave uh the foundational materials of of these industries vulnerable uh to to single source monopolies that that could deny us these things. not just in a time of conflict but as a leverage point uh in contrary to our sovereign national interests >> scope for India to buy more energy from the US uh the key will be uh you know availability reliability and affordability of supply because we do need alternative sources. We are seeking to diversify our energy purchases but at the same time there's a geographical cost a logistic cost because of the distance between India and the United States. So clearly while we would want the US as an additional partner in terms of diversification of energy sources uh we would also like to have other partners who may be more closer to us geographically uh because that makes uh the whole uh energy supply line more affordable.