NEW DELHI: India and the US are poised to soon firm up the much-awaited trade agreement that will be both "beneficial" and "sustainable" and will advance the mutual interests of both nations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday while asserting that the overall bilateral ties are set to witness an upward trajectory.
Rubio, currently on a four-day visit to India, made the remarks after holding wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar that focused on boosting two-way cooperation in areas of trade, critical minerals, energy and defence.
The US Secretary of State's maiden trip to India is largely seen as an attempt to repair bilateral relations that came under severe strain in the last one year over Washington's trade and tariff policies.
The ties nosedived significantly when the Trump administration hit Indian exports with 50 tariffs, including a 25 levy over Russian energy purchases.
"We are hopeful that our Trade Representative can visit here very soon. We had an Indian delegation in the US. We've made tremendous progress, and I think we're going to wind up with a trade agreement between the US and India that is going to be enduring and is going to be beneficial to both sides and sustainable in a way that addresses national interests that we have," Rubio said at a joint media briefing with Jaishankar.
The external affairs minister underlined the importance of an early understanding on the trade deal. "On the economic front, we spoke about the value of concluding, at an early date, the final text of the interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade," he said.
It will be an important step towards a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement, as envisaged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's talks with President Donald Trump during a visit to Washington in February 2025, he said.
In his remarks, Rubio forcefully argued that the Trump administration's policy on trade is driven by a greater aim to recalibrate Washington's overall approach on global trade and is not directed against any specific country.
"This is about the United States in terms of trade. The President did not say: 'Let's figure out a way to create friction with India over trade.' The President came in and said: 'We have a trade situation involving the US economy that doesn't work moving forward'," he said.
"There's a huge imbalance that's built up, and it needs to be addressed. He pursued it from a global perspective," Rubio said.
The Secretary of State said there is virtually no country in the world that he travelled where the trade issue was not flagged. "The President said we have to rebalance US trade. This is not about India." "The good news is that through this rebalancing, we are ultimately seeking and believe we will arrive at trade arrangements around the world that are good for the United States, but also good for our trade partners," he said.
"And one of those we hope will be India. In fact, we are on the verge of making that happen. We are hopeful that our trade representative can visit here very soon," he added.
The US Secretary of State also cited how the US had problems related to trade with its allies, including the European Union.
"The difference is that India is a massive economy. This is a big economy where you're the leading trade partner. We do a lot of trade with India, and so obviously, there's a big difference between rebalancing trade with a country of this size and magnitude," he said.
Rubio said the India-US relationship "continues to be strong and in fact, I believe by the end of this administration, it will be stronger than it has ever been. That's certainly our goal." The US Secretary of State also made a mention of India joining the US-backed 'Pax Silica' initiative.
The Pax Silica initiative was launched in December to build a secure, resilient, and innovation-driven supply chain for critical minerals and artificial intelligence (AI).
The Pax Silica Summit was held in Washington on December 12 where partner nations signed the Pax Silica declaration.
India joined the initiative in February.
To a question on the US's increasingly warm relations with China and Pakistan, Rubio said Washington does not view its engagement with other countries at the expense of its strategic alliance with India.
"As far as our relations with other countries, we have relations, and we work at the tactical level, for example, and in many other ways with countries all over the world, so does India. That's what responsible nation states do," he said.
"But I don't view our relation with any country in the world as coming at the expense of our strategic alliance with India for the reasons I've outlined here already earlier today," he said.