Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: On the eve of his first India visit, and amid the growing energy insecurity worldwide due to the West Asian war, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington wants a strong energy partnership with New Delhi, the media reported on Friday.
Ahead of his four-day visit from May 23 to 26, he described on Thursday India as a key partner and said his discussions would also cover the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) cooperation, trade, defence and possible opportunities involving the Venezuelan oil
Rubio said the US was in talks with India to expand energy cooperation, an issue that would feature in his discussions in New Delhi.
“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,” he told reporters in Miami, USA, as he embarked on the trip to Sweden and India.
During his maiden official India tour, he will visit Kolkata, Agra, and Jaipur, besides New Delhi.
“We want to be able to do more. We were already in talks with them to do more. We want them to be a bigger part of the portfolio. We also think there are opportunities with Venezuelan oil,” Rubio said.
He was responding to a question about India being affected by high energy prices due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Quad meeting
Rubio described India as a “great partner” and said his visit to New Delhi was important as it would also give him an opportunity to meet with ministers from the Quad nations.
“They are a great ally, a great partner. 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,” he 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,” Rubio said.
Venezuela
He also said the acting President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, is scheduled to visit India next week and there will be many opportunities to work with New Delhi.
“In fact, it’s my understanding that the interim president of Venezuela will be travelling to India next week as well. So, there’s opportunities. There’s a lot to work on with India,” Rubio said.