KUALA LUMPUR — Growing coziness between the U.S. and Pakistan in recent months may have rung alarm bells in India even as Washington says its desire to expand strategic ties with Islamabad will not come at the expense of its friendship with New Delhi.
“We know [New Delhi is] concerned for obvious reasons because of the tensions that have existed between Pakistan and India historically,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters ahead of his meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, which took place on Monday in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. Few details about their talks have emerged, with Jaishankar posting on X briefly that he “appreciated” their discussion on India-U.S. ties and regional and global issues.
“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,” Rubio said.
He was apparently referring to nations such as Russia, Iran and Afghanistan with which Washington’s relationships are fraught. India meanwhile has long-standing relations with Tehran and Moscow and recently upgraded its ties with the Afghan Taliban, hosting its Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi earlier this month and elevating its small mission in Kabul to a full-fledged embassy.
“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,” Rubio said.
Archrivals India and Pakistan came to the brink of a full-fledged war in May before they reached a ceasefire, a deal that U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly said was brokered by him between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors after he used trade threats. India rejected Trump’s claim, but Pakistan praised his role and even said it would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
U.S.-Pakistan ties have since been on an upswing. While the Washington-New Delhi relationship has come under strain following Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on India in August, including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil, Pakistan faces tariffs of only 19%.
When asked about his views on Rubio’s comments, Raj Kumar Sharma, a senior research fellow at NatStrat, a New Delhi-based think tank, told Nikkei Asia that the Trump administration “seems to be enamored with Pakistan as they have a rare earth partnership, counter terrorism cooperation and [also in the wake of] America’s promise to invest in Pakistan’s mining, agriculture and energy sectors.”
“It is difficult to say at the moment whether it is a fundamental [or] tectonic shift in America’s South Asia policy, but the signs are not comforting for India,” he said.
“The U.S. may have blessed the recent Saudi-Pakistan defense deal behind the scenes while they may have also encouraged Pakistani military to go after the Taliban in Afghanistan,” Sharma said, adding that these possibilities would fuel “a scenario where Pakistan ends up getting more strategic space in America’s security thinking than before.”
But Rubio’s comments on Monday highlighted Washington’s intention to maintain ties with New Delhi and avoid any estrangement.
Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, reads that intention from the secretary of state’s words. The U.S. understands how important India is, Ranjan told Nikkei, “particularly for its strategic plans in the Indo-Pacific region,” where it is trying to counter China’s influence.
He said that India “may be concerned” about the growing U.S.-Pakistan ties, “but there is no need” for this as the ongoing rift between India and the U.S. “is not going to be permanent.”
“Likewise, the U.S. knows that [the recent] India-China political bonhomie may not last long unless problems [like the decades-old boundary dispute] are resolved between them,” Ranjan said, adding, nevertheless, that India too should look after its interests while engaging with China. “Cooperation with China is essential for dealing with the Trump administration’s policies on trade and tariffs, and also for maintaining peace along the China-India border.”
Washington’s sweeping tariffs appear to have brought India and China closer. Direct flights between the two countries resumed this month after a hiatus of more than five years, and in August, China also promised to address India’s concerns regarding Beijing’s export curbs on rare earths.
Responding to a question on India’s Russian oil purchases, Rubio said that New Delhi “has already expressed an interest in diversifying their oil portfolio … So, obviously the more we sell [oil to] them, the less they’ll buy from someone else.”
Amid accusations from Washington that New Delhi is helping finance Moscow’s war against Ukraine by buying the Russian crude, Trump claimed earlier this month that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him that India would cut its Russian oil purchases, a conversation India suggested did not take place. Modi skipped traveling to Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN-India summit and attended it virtually on Sunday, though Trump was in the Malaysian capital on the day.
“The U.S. may be trying to use Pakistan in order to balance India’s relationship with Russia and New Delhi’s newly found rapprochement with Beijing,” Sharma of NatStrat said.
The article was published in the asia.nikkei
