India Index founder and CEO Samir Kapadia joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to interrupt down Rubio’s India journey, the US push to safe crucial minerals and counter China and balancing Pakistan ties amid Iran tensions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply wrapped a four-day go to to India with a Quad assembly over the weekend. Vitality safety was on the forefront of discussions, alongside Indo-Pacific safety, commerce and provide chain resilience.
The journey was Rubio’s first go to to the nation because the Secretary of State and Nationwide Safety Advisor, and got here at a second of delicate U.S.-India relations and heightened volatility in international vitality markets.
Earlier than embarking on his journey, Rubio mentioned Washington desires New Delhi to purchase extra American oil and fuel.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian International Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar attend a joint press convention after their assembly on the Hyderabad Home in New Delhi, India, Might 24, 2026. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters / Reuters)
“We wish to promote them as a lot vitality as they’ll purchase. We wish them to be an even bigger a part of the portfolio,” Rubio advised reporters in Miami final week, including, “There’s so much to work on with India. They’re an awesome ally, an awesome associate.”
India, the world’s second-largest importer of oil, imports almost 88% of its crude. Greater than half of these imports come from the Center East, a lot of it transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The Iran struggle has created a big vitality disaster for the South Asian nation. And even with indicators of a peace deal rising, the disruptions are anticipated to linger, deepening New Delhi’s fears over long-term vitality safety.
India has more and more sought various provides and regarded to diversify its vitality future, which is accelerating broader U.S.-India vitality cooperation.
“Secretary Rubio ought to clarify that America desires to be India’s vitality associate of selection. U.S. vitality offers India a safe various to opaque, sanctions-exposed provide chains, Max Meizlish, Analysis Fellow on the Basis for Protection of Democracies’ Heart on Financial and Monetary Energy, advised FOX Enterprise.
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“However the partnership has to run each methods. India can’t be a strategic vitality associate for Washington whereas Indian corporations are repeatedly surfacing in sanctions designations involving Iranian vitality flows, shadow fleet transport, falsified origin claims and Russian sanctions evasion,” he added.
An Iranian flag flies above ships anchored within the Strait of Hormuz because the U.S. cracks down on Iran’s rising use of cryptocurrency. (Majid Saeedi / Getty Pictures)
India has continued to purchase discounted Russian crude, regardless of sanctions and strain from Washington to scale back dependence on Moscow’s vitality exports. Now, the U.S. is hoping to influence India to buy extra oil and liquefied pure fuel from America and Venezuela.
This month, Venezuela overtook Saudi Arabia and america to develop into India’s third-largest crude provider.
Throughout a gathering with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rubio underscored the strategic significance of the U.S.-India partnership and affirmed that U.S. vitality merchandise have the potential to diversify India’s vitality provide.
In an X submit on Saturday, Rubio additionally mentioned that Delhi dedicated to purchasing $500 billion in American items over the following 5 years, specializing in vitality, expertise and agriculture.
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On the similar time, India is making an attempt to safe long-term vitality independence by quickly increasing home nuclear energy technology.
Final month, India hit a serious nuclear milestone when its most superior reactor, the Prototype Quick Breeder Reactor (PFBR), achieved a self-sustaining stage.
In contrast to typical reactors, quick breeder reactors produce extra fissile materials than they eat, probably lowering long-term dependence on imported gasoline sources.
As soon as absolutely operational, India will develop into solely the second nation after Russia to run a business fast-breeder reactor.
The India-flagged oil tanker Desh Ujaala is pictured within the Gulf waters close to Al-Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT), about 50 kilometres offshore of Iraq’s southern Faw peninsula, on August 5, 2025. (Hussein Faleh/AFP by way of Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
As this unfolds, New Delhi can be deepening nuclear cooperation with Washington because it seeks overseas funding and superior expertise to quickly scale up its atomic vitality sector.
Earlier this month, a high-level 20-member U.S. Govt Nuclear Trade Delegation visited India to discover non-public funding and expertise commercialization alternatives in India’s civil nuclear vitality market, with discussions targeted on superior nuclear applied sciences and small modular reactors.
U.S. Ambassador to the nation, Sergio Gor, lately praised the rising India-U.S. vitality partnership, saying “massive issues” lie forward.
India plans to extend its nuclear energy capability from 8.8 gigawatts to 100 gigawatts by 2047, creating what officers estimate might develop into an almost $300 billion nuclear vitality market.
The deepening vitality ties prolong past vitality imports alone.
President Donald Trump lately introduced a historic $300 billion refinery settlement with India’s Reliance Industries. Beneath the deal, a brand new oil refinery could be constructed on the Port of Brownsville in Texas. It’s set to develop into the primary new main U.S. refinery inbuilt 50 years.
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, on the Bhartiya Janata Celebration (BJP) headquarters throughout election outcomes night time in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (Prakash Singh/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)
With analysts warning that extended instability involving Iran might proceed rattling international oil markets and provide chains, Rubio’s journey highlighted the rising strategic significance of vitality cooperation between Washington and New Delhi.
For Washington, India represents one of many world’s fastest-growing vitality markets and a key strategic associate within the Indo-Pacific.
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For New Delhi, deeper ties with the U.S. provide a possibility to diversify vitality provides, whereas lowering vulnerability to shocks rippling from the Center East.
“The purpose must be extra American vitality flowing to India and much much less sanctioned Iranian and Russian vitality shifting via Indian channels,” Meizlish advised Fox.
