US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended Washington’s ties with Pakistan, saying the United States needs to keep a relationship with the nuclear-armed country because of its geographic position, The Express Tribune and Geo News reported.
Rubio made the remarks in an interview with India’s Network18 during his three-day visit to India, his second official trip there this year.
“A country that we have to have a relationship with”
Asked about his views on Pakistan as a senator and now as secretary of state, Rubio said his job was to manage the foreign policy of the United States. “In my new role, I’m no longer a senator. I’m the secretary of state. I have to manage the foreign policy of the US, and that does require us to have relationships with countries, including those that we may have some disagreements with,” he said.
He then spoke about Pakistan directly. “It’s a country that we have to have a relationship with. It’s a country that possesses nuclear weapons. It’s a country that, from a geographic standpoint, we need to be able to interact with it in much the same way as the government of India has to have and has a relationship and meets with leaders from Iran,” he said.
Rubio added that the relationship could serve India’s interests. “I think in a way it could be a positive thing, because if we have a relationship and we can speak to them, it could perhaps put us in a position to help discourage the kinds of things that India is worried about,” he said. He also repeated that Washington opposes terrorism anywhere in the world and anybody who sponsors it.
A relationship that has warmed
The Express Tribune noted that US-Pakistan diplomatic engagement has reached new heights since President Donald Trump helped broker a ceasefire between Pakistan and India during their brief war, as Islamabad has said. Since then, leaders from both countries have exchanged cordial gestures. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his mediation, and Trump has often praised the prime minister and Pakistan’s military leadership, once describing Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir as his “favourite field marshal”.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has also spoken of a “true friendship” with PM Shehbaz and Field Marshal Munir, the Tribune reported. Islamabad is now seeking to turn that goodwill into economic gains through a more favourable trade deal with Washington, including tariff concessions and wider access for Pakistani exports.
Pakistan also emerged as a peace broker after war broke out between the United States and Iran in February. According to the Tribune, Islamabad brokered a two-week ceasefire between the two on April 8, followed by talks in Islamabad on April 11 and 12 attended by senior delegations from both countries.
Iran and the Strait of Hormuz
Speaking about the war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Rubio said it was “very difficult to make a deal with” Tehran. He claimed that oil and energy shipments through the strait had reached between 80 and 100 per cent of the levels recorded before the Middle East conflict began in February. That figure is Rubio’s claim, and Geo News did not report an independent confirmation. Rubio said elsewhere on Wednesday that Washington was talking to several countries about possible negotiations with Iran, but that any deal must stop Tehran obtaining a nuclear weapon, Al Jazeera reported, as cited by The Express Tribune.
The India context
Rubio is in India to push for a trade deal with New Delhi. Dawn reported that he said the two sides were “about as close as you can be without having an executed agreement”, with a “small number of items left to wrap up”. He also said India had made “substantial progress” in diversifying its energy supplies, including away from Russia, and that the United States could supply some of its energy needs. Read our report on Rubio’s visit to India and the trade deal.
Why it matters
Rubio’s remarks, made on Indian soil to an Indian outlet, show that the Trump administration intends to keep its relationship with Pakistan even as it deepens trade and energy ties with India. For Islamabad, the statement is a public acknowledgement of Pakistan’s strategic weight, and of its role in efforts to ease the crisis with Iran. The test will be whether that goodwill leads to the trade concessions Pakistan wants.
This article draws on reporting by The Express Tribune, Geo News and Dawn.
Comments
Comments are reviewed by our editors before they appear. Please keep them civil and on topic. See our terms.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your view.