Ahead of his visit to India, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that Washington is ready to sell as much energy as New Delhi is willing to buy.
Speaking to reporters in Miami, Rubio described India as a “great ally and partner”, and said that his visit was important as it would give him a chance to meet the ministers from the Quad nations, news agency PTI reported.
“We do a lot of good work with them. And so it is an important trip. I’m glad we’re able to do it because I think there’ll be a lot for us to talk about,” Rubio said.
“We’ll also meet with Quad there, which is important. I think my first meeting as Secretary of State was with the Quad. I’m glad we are able to do it now in India and we’re going to do one later in the year as well,” he added.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing global energy crisis in the wake of the US-Iran war, Rubio said, “Well, we want to sell them as much energy as they’ll buy. And obviously, you’ve seen I think we’re at historic levels of US production, and US export.”
The US State Secretary will be in India from May 23 to May 26, and will visit New Delhi, Kolkata, Agra and Jaipur.
Rubio said the US wants to do more and is already in talks with India to do more. “We want them to be a bigger part of their portfolio. We also think there are opportunities with Venezuelan oil,” Rubio added.
His reference to Venezuelan oil was in relation to Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s interim president, who will be visiting India next week to discuss selling oil — an announcement that was also made by Rubio.
The Quad meeting is scheduled for May 26, and is set to be attended by Rubio, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Motegi Toshimitsu, with India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar presiding.
Meanwhile, Rubio will be the first US State Secretary to visit Kolkata in almost 14 years. The last such visit was made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2012.
Notably, the US Consulate General in Kolkata is America’s second-oldest consulate in the world.
US President Donald Trump made the first mention of India’s Venezuela oil purchase in early February when Washington and New Delhi announced a key trade deal, including reduced reciprocal tariffs of 18 per cent from the existing 25 per cent on Indian imports.
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