External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Monday met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The two leaders held discussions over several matters, focusing on improving bilateral ties.
"Glad to meet @SecRubio this morning in Kuala Lumpur. Appreciated the discussion on our bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues," Jaishankar posted on X (formerly Twitter).
India-US trade talks and tariffs
The meeting between the two leaders come at a time when trade negotiations between India and the United States (US) are underway. Though the two sides have stressed the talks are "progressing well", Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has asserted that India will not enter into an agreement "with a gun" to its head.
"We are talking to the US, but we do not do deals in a hurry and we do not do deals with deadlines or with a gun to our head," Goyal said last week at an event in Germany.
Interestingly, the US has imposed a whooping 50 per cent tariffs on India, citing trade imbalance and New Delhi's decision to procure Russian crude. Initially, it had imposed a 25 per cent tariff, but announced an additional 25 per cent levy later. India has criticised the tariffs, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other union ministers have assured that the government will take all steps to protect the country's national interests.
Rubio's 'not at India's expense' remark
Ahead of his meeting with Jaishankar, Rubia had said that the US aims to improve its relationship with India, but not at the expense of its ties with India. Interacting with reporters, Rubio said India is "concerned for obvious reasons" about US's ties with Pakistan, but pointed out that New Delhi should understand that Washington has "to have relations with a lot of different countries."
I think the Indians are very mature when it comes to diplomacy and things of that nature. Look, they have some relationships with countries that we don't have relationships with. So, it's part of a mature, pragmatic foreign policy," he said. "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."
