US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that growing engagement with Pakistan does not come at the expense of Washington’s strategic partnership with India. Rubio, visiting New Delhi on a four-day trip, made the remarks at a joint press briefing with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
“India is one of our most important strategic partners in the world,” Rubio said, stressing that relationships with other countries are not pursued at India’s expense. Asked about concerns in New Delhi over closer US ties with Islamabad over the past year, he added, “I don’t view our relation with any country in the world as coming at the expense of our strategic alliance with India.”
Rubio framed engagement with Pakistan as part of routine tactical diplomacy, noting that “we have relations and we work at the tactical level, with countries all over the world. So does India, and that’s what responsible nation states do.”
The comment comes amid heightened attention to intensified contacts between the US and Pakistan over the last year. Those ties — including high-level meetings between President Donald Trump and Pakistan’s Army Chief, Field Marshal General Asim Munir — have raised unease in some Indian circles.
Observers note that the Trump–Munir relationship positioned Pakistan as a diplomatic backchannel between Washington and Tehran during the US–Iran confrontation. Earlier in 2025, shortly after Operation Sindoor, Trump hosted Field Marshal Munir for a private White House lunch, a move that marked the first occasion a US president entertained a Pakistani army chief without Pakistan’s civilian leaders present.
The Pakistani military chief has reportedly gained direct access to the Oval Office and attended senior US military events, including the retirement ceremony of the Commander of US Central Command. Pakistan has also offered the US access to local mining projects and rare-earth deposits in Balochistan.
At the same time, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has publicly praised Trump, even nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize, a gesture that analysts say provided political cover for some US regional initiatives.
Rubio’s remarks were an attempt to reassure New Delhi that bilateral cooperation with Islamabad is tactical and limited in scope, while reaffirming the importance of the US–India strategic partnership.
