Rubio Presses India on Oil and Trade
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged India to buy more American energy, said the long-delayed U.S.-India trade agreement is "about as close as you can be without having executed" it, and said he will visit Reliance's giant Jamnagar refinery to push for more Venezuelan oil to be refined there.
In Mumbai for talks with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's external affairs minister, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called India a "refining superpower" and urged it to diversify its supplies with U.S. energy.
Rubio said the United States and India are "very, very close" to finishing a trade agreement. "I would say we're about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement," he said.
He also said he will visit Reliance Industries' refinery at Jamnagar to discuss bringing more Venezuelan oil there. "We're going to go see what the holdup is and what opportunities exist," he said.
India gets about 45% to 50% of its oil from Russia. Rubio said he was "happy" to see India making "substantial progress" in buying from elsewhere, and that the United States and Venezuela can supply more.
Jaishankar also hosted the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, and the three held a joint meeting on energy, trade and connectivity, as the U.S. war with Iran and Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz squeeze Gulf energy exports.
Mumbai, India — Secretary of State Marco Rubio pressed India to buy more American oil and technology in talks with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and said the two countries are on the verge of a trade agreement.
The State Department said Rubio told Jaishankar that more energy trade with the United States "can play a transformative role" in diversifying India's supplies, praised recent progress on defense and civil nuclear cooperation, and urged India to buy more American technologies and systems.
A trade deal "very, very close"
Rubio told reporters the long-negotiated U.S.-India trade agreement is nearly done. "We're very, very close. I would say we're about as close as you can be without having executed the agreement. I think there's a small number of items left to wrap up, so I think that will happen shortly," he said. His visit comes after months of strain between the two countries over U.S. moves on H-1B work visas, threatened sanctions over India's purchases of Russian oil, which have since been held off, and the slow trade talks.
Oil from Russia, America and Venezuela
Rubio called India a "refining superpower." Russian oil makes up about 45% to 50% of what India takes in. Rubio said he was "happy" that India has made "substantial progress" in diversifying and that the United States and Venezuela can supply more. Last month oil from Russia, the United States and Venezuela made up two-thirds of India's imports.
He said he will visit the Jamnagar refinery owned by Mukesh Ambani's Reliance to discuss refining more Venezuelan crude. "We've talked to them about it in the past. We're going to go see what the holdup is and what opportunities exist," he said, noting the company's past presence in Venezuela and its large refining capacity.
A three-way meeting with the UAE
Jaishankar also hosted the UAE's foreign minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, met him and Rubio separately and then held a meeting of all three. Jaishankar called it a "useful exchange of perspectives on energy, connectivity and contemporary developments." The UAE's oil exports have been hit by the U.S. war with Iran and Tehran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.