New Delhi — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds talks with his Indian counterpart Subramaniam Jaishankar on Sunday, as the two countries look forward to stable relations that have fallen to their lowest levels in more than two decades.
Rubio’s visit comes amid an economic and diplomatic slowdown between the United States and India, largely influenced by the policies of US President Donald Trump. Tariff policies Which led to the raising of customs duties on many Indian exports.
Rubio arrived on Saturday on his first official visit to India before a meeting scheduled for Tuesday with his counterparts from India, Australia and Japan, which are member states of the Indo-Pacific region. The strategic alliance known as the Quad.
“India is the cornerstone of how the United States engages with the Indo-Pacific region, not just through the Quad, but bilaterally,” Rubio said in New Delhi.
His four-day visit will include a multi-city tour and a reception in New Delhi on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of US independence.
“In the past year, statements and pronouncements from Washington on some of India’s most sensitive security concerns and trade issues have not been helpful and have created a trust deficit,” said Ashok Malik, a former political advisor at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
Malik added that “some doubts will remain,” noting that Rubio’s visit will be considered an achievement if the talks lead to somewhat stabilizing the relationship and stopping further deterioration.
Experts say friction exists between the global strategic ambitions of the United States and India’s priorities as an emerging middle power. India, as historically close to Russia, has long shown unease with its proximity to the United States, which reflects India’s mistrust of American intentions rooted in cultural differences and Cold War-era instincts.
However, the Indo-US relationship has steadily deepened over two decades into a broad and strong strategic partnership, which has been increasingly shaped in recent years by shared concerns about China’s increasing aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific, expressed diplomatically through the Quad Forum.
The Quartet repeatedly accused China of flexing its military muscles in the region South China Sea And vigorously push its territorial maritime claims. Beijing insists that its military is purely defensive to protect what it says are China’s sovereign rights and calls it “sovereignty.” Quad try to contain Its economic growth and impact.
After the inauguration of the US President in January 2025. Rubio’s first official international participation He was meeting with the foreign ministers of the Quartet countries jointly and in separate sessions.
However, a series of events since last year have brought diplomatic relations to a low point.
Although close relationships are often perceived as… Ideological alliesIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi downplayed Trump’s role in brokering a ceasefire after talks A short military conflict between India and Pakistan By April 2025 Massacre of mostly Hindu tourists In Indian-controlled Kashmir. But Pakistan publicly engaged Trump and even defended awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize.
This was followed by economic tensions, as the Trump administration imposed tariffs on India due to its reduced purchases of Russian oil, further straining relations between the two countries.
“In India, there is some skepticism about US policy and its predictability,” said Malik, who heads the India arm of the US-based consultancy Asia Group. He added that what happened last year between India and the United States “cannot be easily forgotten or erased.”
when Iran war After the crisis erupted in February, the United States strengthened its engagement with Pakistan, which presented itself as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, exacerbating anxiety in New Delhi. Trump’s recent high-level visit to China has only added to India’s discomfort.
India-US relations are facing challenges “because of some structural tensions, and Trump has brought them to the forefront,” said Praveen Donthe, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“New Delhi’s foreign policy, increasingly colored by its domestic politics, has become more ambiguous in the past decade, as evidenced by its deep discomfort with US relations with Pakistan and its moves toward detente with China,” Donthe said.
Experts say these shifts reflect the growing complexity of Indo-US relations rooted in shared strategic interests, but increasingly shaped by competing priorities and a changing geopolitical landscape.
“New Delhi will likely be strategically patient and wait for Trump to leave office,” Donthe said. India hopes that the bipartisan consensus on India in the United States will continue during his term, and that it can begin to build on that again.”
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Hussain reported from Srinagar, India.