External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the trade agreement reached between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and used their Washington meeting to advance cooperation on energy, nuclear, defence, technology and critical minerals. The talks took place on Tuesday at the State Department.
Rubio met Jaishankar in bilateral talks ahead of the US-hosted inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial. Jaishankar, on a visit to the United States from February 2–4, described the conversation on social media as wide-ranging and covering bilateral, regional and global issues. He said both sides agreed to convene early meetings of existing mechanisms to push forward shared priorities.
A State Department readout by Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the two leaders welcomed the trade deal struck between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi and underscored the importance of cooperation between democracies to unlock economic opportunities and strengthen energy security. The officials also discussed formalising bilateral cooperation on exploration, mining and processing of critical minerals.
The readout added that Jaishankar and Rubio concluded their meeting by affirming a commitment to deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation through the Quad framework, noting that a prosperous Indo-Pacific is central to shared interests.
Rubio also posted that the meeting focused on working together on critical minerals exploration and on expanding economic opportunities between the two countries, and he commended the newly announced trade agreement.
The discussion followed an announcement by President Trump on Truth Social reporting that the United States and India had agreed to a trade deal that would lower the US reciprocal tariff on India from 25 percent to 18 percent.
The inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial, convened by the United States, will bring delegations together to strengthen and diversify critical minerals supply chains, which the US says are essential for technological innovation, economic resilience and national security. US officials scheduled to give opening remarks include Vice President J.D. Vance, Senator Rubio, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Global Supply Chains David Copley, and Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg.
During his Washington visit, Jaishankar is also due to meet with senior members of the US administration to continue discussions on the broad agenda of bilateral cooperation.
