Rubio leaves for India visit, says aims to secure “economic opportunities” even as Trump hits tariff pause for ‘ally’ India

WASHINGTON DC: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has left the US for his visit to Uzbekist and and India. Rubio left from the Joint Base Andrews late on Saturday (local time) and will be in India on October 20.

“Just departed for Uzbekistan and India to continue securing the Trump Administration’s economic opportunities for our nation,” Rubio said ahead of his departure.

Meanwhile, a day after US President Donald Trump waived several sanctions related to Russian fuel sales that were to take effect under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, Rubio described India as an important ally whose energy needs must be considered before putting any tariffs or sanctions in place.

The law, which has now been paused, would have imposed tariffs of up to 100% on goods brought into the US from the five largest importers of Russian crude oil or gas which includes India and China.

Rubio who is scheduled to visit India and more importantly Jamnagar, home to one of the world’s largest refineries, later this month, said that the US President wants to use a 60-day window to analyse what imposing the tariffs would mean.

“These sanctions were not just sanctions on Russia. They include tariffs on a number of countries—India, for example, and others. And so I think the president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyse what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the U.S. economy,” Rubio said.