Why The Us Suddenly Needs India More Than Ever

TITLE: Why the US suddenly needs India more than ever | DW News CHANNEL: DW News DATE: 2026-05-23 ---TRANSCRIPT--- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in India on a delicate mission to fix the strained ties between the US and India. Now, it could be called a sort of reset effort. But what’s on the agenda? Now among the many topics are resolving trade tensions, Trump’s tariffs are likely to be discussed, energy security and exports with the US uh keen to increase their supply of oil and gas to India and strengthening both the US and India’s military and defense ties in the Indo-Pacific region. Now there are just a few of the topics that um are expected to come up. Now on this visit, Rubio arrived already into Kolkata. You can see the images there. He’s also meeting Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister in New Delhi, the capital. But how much can Rubio’s 4-day visit actually achieve? Now, to help us break down the key issues, I’ve got two great guests joining me. They’re both in New Delhi. Uh we’re going to start with DW’s Delhi bureau chief Zandra Pedosman and expert on US Europe India relations as well as US foreign and defense relations Rachel Rizzo from the observer research foundation in Delhi. So great to have both of you and uh as I just mentioned there I’m going to go uh to you Xandra um DW’s Delhi bureau chief um my my first question to you is um relations between the US and India have been strained. What is being said in India about Marco Rubio’s visit?

Well, there are certainly a lot of eyes on every move of Marco Rubio first in Kolkata and now here in New Delhi before he also ventures out to Jaipur and Agra in the state of Rajasthan. Um they follow him closely because of the damage that has been done especially in the year of 2025. I spoke to a young research analyst from Carnegie, India, and she referred to this visit as a moment of reinvigoration. If that is truly the case, we’ll have to see when the visit is concluded. There is so much to talk about because ties are strained. Also by doings of President Trump in the United States, he very recently, for instance, shared a post by a US right-wing podcaster referring to India as a hellhole country. And things like this don’t go down easily here in India. They do get noticed. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, no surprises there if you’re uh if if that’s being said about uh uh your country. Now, from uh New Delhi’s perspective, what has actually been though the cause of the biggest of of of the largest amount of friction? Well, from my point of view, it’s a whole bundle of frictions show so to say. If you look specifically at the year of 2025, we could start with April when the US lashed out at India with reciprocal tariffs of 25%. Then came May um India and its rival its neighbor Pakistan going to war for 4 days and then Trump claiming the role as ceasefire maker in chief something that India till this very day firmly rejects while Pakistan on the other hand has suggested him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Then we saw August 2025 with another round of tariffs. This time punitive because of India’s continued purchase of Russian oil and Russian arms bringing it up to a whooping 50%. And all of this combined and then the Iran war on top of all of that straining Indian energy resources somewhat makes a perfect storm. And clearly uh Secretary of State Rubio has a lot to talk about here in India and a lot of diplomatic repair work to do from my point of view. Yeah, it certainly sounds like it. And I want to bring you in uh Rachel. You’ve been listening there to Sandra. Um can you give us a sense of how important this meeting is for the United States? Sandra has mentioned so many of the topics that are expected to come up. Yeah, absolutely. And I would second everything that Sandra had to say. this meeting is extremely important and I think the fact that it’s taken so long to happen uh actually underscores just how much ground doesn’t just need to be covered but needs to be recovered because of the past year and because of what has transpired between the US and India over uh over the past year you know this relationship was supposed to be in the words of Marco Rubio the defining relationship of the 21st century and instead what we’ve seen is punishing tariffs There’s been this dispute over the purchases of uh Indian purchases of Russian oil. You have the military conflict of course between India and Pakistan that the US president continues to take credit for solving. And I think India beyond all that has also felt sidelined in major US diplomatic moves on both Iran and China. So I think Washington, you know, this relationship isn’t just um it’s it’s a pretty irreplaceable one in the Indoacific. And if it’s serious, if the US is serious about its strategic posture in Asia, it can’t afford a cold relationship with New Delhi. So the fact that this meeting is taking course over four days, it’s not just a quick flyin, I think shows that Washington understands it needs some tending. All right. But is it sort of then a combination of the sort of economic strategic um and also on some level about countering China? Is that is that what the trip as well is sort of centering itself around? Sure. And and I think that there there’s all all three of these things are deeply intertwined. There’s an economic aspect of it, a strategic aspect of it, and the China aspect of it that looms large over any over everything. On the economic side, the US ultimately, I think, would like a comprehensive trade deal. This interim agreement that brought tariffs down to 18% is a patch, but it’s not a long-term solution. Um, I think the US would also like New Delhi to buy more American energy. It wants it to continue to reduce its dependence on Russian oil both for strategic and economic reasons. Um on the strategic side as well, the US wants India to deepen its defense cooperation with the US through things like joint exercises, tech sharing, interoperability, and of course underpinning it all is China. This entire logic of pulling India closer is about building a credible counterweight to Beijing’s influence across the Indopacific and India’s geography here makes it critical as well. I just want to go back to the just the issue of trade. How much leverage Rachel is the US trying to exert through um through trade? Well, as we know it has tried to exert heavy leverage through trade and it’s largely backfired actually. uh you know Trump’s decision to hit India with 50% tariffs was a pretty aggressive move against uh India this is a country that Washington calls a key strategic partner um and this message that the US was sending was pretty blunt it was like stop buying Russian oil or face these economic consequences and this didn’t land well in Delhi their response was equally blunt uh it called the tariffs unjustified pointed out American hypocrisy on Russian imports basically uh refusing to be bullied into compliance. So you know Rubio’s offer the US offer now to sell India as much American energy as it wants I think is this carrot after the stick and whether India bites I think obviously depends on price and availability. Uh but right now I think trust is a pretty scarce commodity in this relationship as well and both sides need to focus on rebuilding that. Yeah, I’m going to come back to the issue of trust, but I actually want to just bring Sandra in there with regards to um tariffs and I just want to get some perspective from India about the level of concern that there is in India and Rachel was also talking there about energy as well and this this uh you know um issue as well with Russian oil. So what’s being said with regards to those issues? Sandra, energy is a scarce commodity. So is trust in this relationship. I would absolutely see on what Rachel just said. Multiple sources have kept on telling me over the month that trust has been shattered in this relationship that once like Rachel said was defined as a defining relationship of the 21st century by both sides. But then actions did not meet words. And what we have seen in the last couple of months is India somewhat pivoting away, pivoting towards perhaps hedging even towards other middle powers like the EU um concluding a trade deal with the European Union that both sides refer mother of all trade deals. While the trade deal with the US is still not inked. There is somewhat an interim framework agreement but much talking still needs to be done. The US is still demanding much more access to the Indian market but India has uh historically been rather protective especially of its agricultural um market here in India. So there is much to talk about and with shattered trust being a scar commodity I think one visit cannot undo what months of difficulties and bad energy have caused here. Yeah. Um Rachel back to you with regards to this trust issue. I mean all of us know just in a in the personal sense you know breaking trust it takes a long time to rebuild that. Um and I mean Sandra was just mentioning there as well how you know difficult it is to um I suppose rebuild that. What’s your take on it? What what needs to be done um in order for that trust to to change and to grow again? Yeah I mean I what Sandra has said is interesting. I mean, we’ve we have this narrative in New Delhi now that the US is an unreliable partner that’s willing to weaponize trade um even against its allies. And you know, I watch the US relationship with Europe closely as well. And this is the same narrative that you hear in Brussels and it’s the same narrative that you hear in key strategic capitals around Europe uh as well. And so the fact that this is a common theme amongst our key allies and partners around the globe is a real problem. And I think at some point you know you have major visits like the one by Marco Rubio here to Delhi trying to smooth things over. Um but I think there also needs to be an understanding that um India is not just going to bend to the will of the United States. It is building its partnerships with other uh partners abroad. uh the free trade agreement with the EU, with New Zealand, with the UK. Um the the US is no longer just the the pure cornerstone of its foreign policy. So there needs to be, I think, some real middle ground that the United States is willing to seed here on things like trade, things like energy and an understanding that this uh approach of multi-alignment in India is very much still a part of its foreign policy and is not going to change. Yeah, I want to jump on something as well that you said earlier about um the Indo-Pacific sort of the US strategy there, Rachel. Can you just explain to us where India fits into all of this? Sure. I mean, in theory, it’s a cornerstone to the US approach in the Indoacific region, but in practice, it’s like it’s pretty complicated. you know, you have this vision um in the US there’s a vision for the Indo-Pacific that’s this network of democratic allies and partners that can collectively deter Chinese dominance specifically in things like seal lanes, trade routes, uh institutions. India is the only country in that network with the scale with the geography with the military capability to truly rival China either at sea or on land. Um and and so it it India also has this large and growing defense industry. Um and so I think again going back to this the problem here is that India’s foreign policy tradition of strategic autonomy means it doesn’t join alliances. doesn’t host foreign military bases and it reserves the right to do things like buy Russian weapons and Russian oil regardless of Washington’s preferences. The US has to work with that reality rather than work against it. Uh and I think Rubio’s trip should be and hopefully is about accepting India uh on its own terms. Sandra, back to you because um part of this trip and it’s coming up in um a few days time, Marco Rubio is attending uh the Quad foreign ministers meeting and for our viewers, the Quad is a strategic partnership made up of the US, India, Japan and Australia and they have several aims. Among them is uh Rachel just mentioned there um and and both of you have mentioned this um is sort of to counter China’s sort of dominance or growing dominance in the region. Can you kind of give us a sense of how that’s landing in um India and how much uh it’s being discussed? I mean the quad foreign minister’s meeting on Tuesday is certainly being discussed here. It is a meeting that for a lot of think tankers here seems long overdue because the last summit of the quad on the heads of state level was in

2024. India was supposed to host it last year. It never materialized because of the strained issues um with the United States, the trade tensions and the perceived bullying, the perceived being unfairly singled out by the United States when it came to tariffs and Russian oil. And now this foreign minister’s meeting could perhaps that’s at least India’s hope be a precursor for something bigger in the second half of the year. India is certainly wanting this summit level meeting at the heads of state to materialize in the second half of the year which would mean that President Trump would then visit New Delhi uh would visit India but if that really comes if it really comes to it after this foreign minister’s meeting um that remains to be seen because trust needs to be rebuilt first though there is of course some convergent uh some convergence of strategic interests between India and the United States when it comes to the Indo-acific when it comes to countering China there. Although India’s perception is they don’t want the quat to become a NATO kind of thing of the Indo-Pacific because let’s not forget that India shares a very long contested border with China and it simply cannot afford too much bad energy with China there though containment of China in the Indo-acific having free trade routes like Rachel mentioned that is something that it certainly aligns with US strategic interests as well.

Yeah. highly complex. I just want to get one um final word there from you, Rachel. Um you know, with with regards to what we’ve just discussed there about this Quad meeting and as well just this this trip in general, what is it that you’re sort of keeping a real close eye on and what should we be keeping an eye on um over the coming days with regards to say the language that Marco Rubio might be using or what what will be said after um these meetings? Yeah, I mean it’s always interesting to see what kind of actual statements and policymaking decisions come out of the you know pomp and circumstance of major visits like this. I’ll be watching closely um any conversations that happen on defense um on defense cooperation things like I mentioned before inter interoperability um I’ll be looking at what they talk about on trade and energy um but also you know as as the question you asked to Sandra about the quad it’s going to be really interesting to see where the quad conversation ends up going after this um it’s it’s there’s a fundamental question about what it actually is and what it actually is going to be. And so if you come out of this and you get a sense that uh this is an important uh strategic you know miniateral for the Trump administration uh that you know Trump does want to come here for a leaders meeting that gives you a sense of the importance that they’re giving to the quad and right now you know people that watch the Indoacific closely are really wondering what the future of that forum holds. So those are just a few of the things uh that I’ll be watching. Obviously, you know, the the pressers that that come out of this uh the conversation with Modi, the meeting with uh foreign minister J Shankar, all things to watch and and and see what comes out of him. Yeah, so much to watch but really I must say, excellent speaking to both of you. I feel a lot more prepared of what I should be keeping an eye out for over the coming days. Uh real pleasure to have you. uh Rachel Rizzo, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi and of course DW’s Delhi bureau chief Sandra Peters man. Thank you so much to both of you. Um and hopefully we’ll speak again soon uh about this topic. All right, take care. Thanks. All right. Well, thanks for uh watching. Don’t forget you can see other interviews on our YouTube channel and at DWN News on Instagram and Tik Tok. What are your thoughts on Marco Rubio’s trip to India? Send us in your questions and comments. What are you going to be looking out for? I’m Pablo Folias. Look forward to hearing from you again soon. Take care.