{"id":3020,"date":"2026-10-20T20:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:03:45","slug":"rubio-says-india-diversifying-oil-trade-deal-very-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3020","title":{"rendered":"Rubio says India diversifying oil, trade deal ‘very close’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday India had made \u201csubstantial progress\u201d in diversifying its oil supplies, suggesting a trade deal with New Delhi was \u201cvery close\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rubio arrived in Mumbai for a three-day visit, his second official trip to India this year, as the two countries seek to overcome trade tensions and deepen energy ties.<\/p>\n

India is a major importer of Russian oil, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff war launched in April last year has added to friction between Washington and New Delhi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat India has expressed repeatedly is their desire to diversify their energy portfolio, which is a smart thing to do,\u201d Rubio told reporters in India\u2019s financial capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy to do that from one day to the next, so I think they\u2019ve made substantial progress in that regard, and we\u2019re happy to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

India is wary of US trade measures, including a law allowing tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries buying Russian oil, although Trump signed an executive order last week that waived those threatened sanctions.<\/p>\n

Rubio last visited India in May, when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

He is not scheduled to meet Modi this time, but held talks on Tuesday with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and will meet business leaders.<\/p>\n

They discussed \u201cenergy security and defence cooperation while reaffirming the importance of advancing the US-India strategic partnership\u201d, Rubio said on social media after their meeting.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u2018Small number\u2019<\/h3>\n

The top US diplomat will visit Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat, a port and stronghold of billionaire Mukesh Ambani\u2019s Reliance conglomerate and its flagship refinery, the world\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is a refining superpower,\u201d Rubio said, adding that \u201cwe think we could be a source of some of their energy inputs\u201d.<\/p>\n

The two countries reached an interim trade agreement in February aimed at reducing US tariffs on Indian goods.<\/p>\n

However, the US Supreme Court struck down Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs days later, fuelling uncertainty over when the agreement would take effect.<\/p>\n

The two sides have been negotiating ever since.<\/p>\n

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said this month the talks had reached \u201ca plateau, beyond which giving or taking might be very, very difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rubio was more upbeat on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very, very close; I would say we\u2019re about as close as you can be without having an executed agreement. I think there\u2019s a small number of items left to wrap up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully have some good news to announce fairly soon, and perhaps the leaders can sign it thereafter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agriculture remains a sensitive area for India, which is reluctant to expose farmers to greater foreign competition.<\/p>\n

Washington, meanwhile, wants India to buy more US energy supplies.<\/p>\n

Goods exports to the United States jumped 21 per cent in August to $8.3 billion compared to the same month a year earlier, when India faced 50 per cent tariffs.<\/p>\n

The surge in exports has been a bright spot for the Indian economy, which has been roiled by high energy prices due to the Middle East war.<\/p>\n

Economists say that a return of higher tariffs would cast a shadow over India\u2019s growth outlook, hurt market sentiment and heap pressure on an already-weak rupee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday India had made \u201csubstantial progress\u201d in diversifying its oil supplies, suggesting a trade deal with New Delhi was \u201cvery close\u201d. Rubio arrived in Mumbai for a three-day visit, his second official trip to India this year, as the two countries seek to overcome trade tensions and deepen energy ties. India is a major importer of Russian oil, and US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariff war launched in April last year has added to friction between Washington and New Delhi. \u201cWhat India has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3020\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}