US Close to Finalizing Trade Deal with India, Says Secretary of State Marco Rubio

The US is “very close” to finalising a trade deal with India, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, suggesting that the waiver from tariffs for buying Russian oil was linked to the decision. “We’re trying to finalise the trade deal with India right now. We’re very close to doing that. So that’s one of the things we take into consideration when the President makes a decision about national security waivers and things of that nature,” Rubio told reporters in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Rubio is set to travel to India and meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Mumbai to discuss issues ranging from energy, trade, defence, critical and emerging technologies and other key areas of bilateral cooperation. Rubio appeared to acknowledge the reasons for India to continue buying oil from Russia, an issue that has been the focus of talks between him and Jaishankar since the US passed the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act in September. “You also can’t unravel the economy of other countries because of one central issue. So that’s the complex part of having to balance all of this,” Rubio said. He said every country has a complex set of factors that they have to take into account, such as geography, and for some countries it’s very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources. “That’s not an excuse, but all of that has to be balanced when you make foreign policy. The foreign policy of the US, of course, takes into account what’s happening with the war between Russia and Ukraine, but it is not solely dominated by that,” Rubio said. “It has to take into account a variety of other factors, including our bilateral relationships with other countries and what they realistically are capable of being able to do in terms of their own energy supplies,” he said. Jaishankar is understood to have conveyed to Rubio that oil refineries in India were configured largely for handling medium sour crude, which is supplied by Middle East countries and Russia. He also told Rubio that Venezuela supplies heavier-grade crude and the US has light-grade crude, which would require blending before being used by refineries in India. With oil supplies from Middle East countries hit due to the Iran war, India has to depend on Russian crude to keep its economy running.