India plays an ‘important role’, at cornerstone of US approach to Indo-Pacific: Rubio

New Delhi: Asserting that India-US partnership continues to deepen, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday said that relationship with New Delhi remains at the cornerstone of Washington’s approach to the Indo-Pacific and both countries will have some “exciting and new announcements” to make about the development and the strengthening of the relationship in the coming months.

Addressing the gathering before inaugurating the US Embassy’s Support Annex building in New Delhi, Rubio spotlighted the “important role” India plays in the US approach to the Indo-Pacific.

“It is a sign of our commitment to this important relationship between the United States and India. This relationship between our two countries is at the cornerstone of our approach to the Indo-Pacific,” said Rubio.

Rubio recalled that the first major discussions he held after being sworn in as the US Secretary of State in January 2025 were during the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Washington DC, a grouping that also includes India.

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and Rubio had also met shortly after the Quad meeting, which was the first foreign policy engagement, not only for Rubio but also for the Trump administration in its second term.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of this, but I was sworn in as Secretary of State on Tuesday, or Wednesday, it was a Tuesday after the inauguration. Within the hour, I was at the State Department, spoke briefly, as is tradition, in the lobby of that building to our staff. And then went immediately upstairs to the eighth floor. And my first meeting, my very first meeting officially as Secretary of State, was a meeting of the Quad. And we were going to renew that. We did it again last year in a second, in a different setting, and we chose to do it here,” Rubio said on Saturday.

“We wanted to do it here, not just because of our commitment to that structure of work, but also as a tangible sign of what an important role India plays in the United States and in our posture and in our approach to the Indo-Pacific,” he asserted.

He highlighted that “personal relationship” between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump continues to solidify the India-US ties.

“Anchoring that is the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister. It’s a personal relationship that dates back to the first administration, when the President had a chance to visit here. And it has carried over into this second administration, and you can just see the connection between them. And I think that’s incredibly important. It is. The connection between leaders is incredibly important. These are two very serious leaders that are focused not just on the short term, but on the long term,” he said.

The US Secretary of State asserted that the partnership between Washington and New Delhi has deepened “in ways that don’t often make headlines or aren’t splashy”, but are important and real and tangible and enduring.

“We’ve expanded commercial ties now with more than $20 billion in investments, $20 billion in investments from Indian companies in the United States. We’ve deepened a security partnership through military exercises in the Indo-Pacific. And of course, as part of that, we recognise that an orderly and a secure consular system is vital to solidifying this important relationship. That’s why we’re introducing a new America First visa scheduling tool that prioritises business professionals that strengthen these ties,” Rubio stated.

He ended his remarks by reiterating that the partnership between US and India remains an “incredibly important” one.

“It’s the reason why I’m here on this visit to reaffirm those ties, to build upon them. And we think in the months ahead, we’re going to have even more exciting and new announcements to make about the development and the strengthening of the relationship between the two countries,” remarked Rubio.

IANS