US ties with Pakistan will not come at Delhi’s expense: Rubio assures India

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has assured India that Washington’s relations with Pakistan and other countries will not come at the expense of its ties with New Delhi, amid concerns over the Trump administration’s growing engagement with Islamabad.

In an interview with The Indian Express, Rubio said the global order had changed significantly since the 1970s and rejected comparisons with the period when the US, under President Richard Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger, maintained close ties with Pakistan’s military regime.

“I would not use the 1970s as an example because the world looks nothing like it did back then. Back then, we had the Cold War and all sorts of other dynamics that no longer exist,” Rubio said.

Addressing concerns over US President Donald Trump’s outreach to Pakistan, particularly its military leadership, Rubio said Washington did not view its relationship with other countries as coming at the cost of its partnership with India.

“Our relationship with no country in the world, in any way, comes at the expense of our relationship with India,” he said.

Rubio said his visit to India, continued engagement between the two countries and efforts to conclude a bilateral trade deal demonstrated Washington’s commitment to the relationship.

He also argued that the US engagement with Pakistan could help prevent actions that might lead to conflict with India.

“Pakistan is a country we have a relationship with, and we need to have a relationship with,” Rubio said, adding that Washington could use its influence to discourage actions that could potentially trigger a conflict.

The remarks come amid concerns in New Delhi over the Trump administration’s closer engagement with Pakistan, including its outreach to Pakistan’s military leadership, as well as broader strains in India-US relations over trade and tariffs.

Rubio, who is on a two-day visit to India, also spoke about the challenges of ending Russia’s four-year-old war in Ukraine, saying the conflict was complex and would not be easy to resolve.

“These things are complex, and if this was an easy war to solve, it would have been solved a long time ago,” he said.