The US Secretary of State’s visit to India and the meeting of the foreign ministers of the “QUAD” countries confirmed a commitment to strengthening the strategic partnership, despite differences.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first visit to India, May 23–26, 2026 - timed to coincide with the meeting in Delhi of the foreign ministers of the QUAD countries - a four-party dialogue on security and development issues uniting Australia, India, the US, and Japan - confirmed the parties’ interest in strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two global powers.

During the working visit, Rubio held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, and the Prime Minister’s National Security Advisor A. Doval, during which the guest sought to resolve accumulated issues, primarily in the trade and economic sphere, and to continue the course toward further rapprochement between the states, including on the well-known anti-China and anti-Russia basis.

Rubio had to justify himself

The talks focused on strengthening strategic cooperation in the areas of security, defense, trade, and investment. Apparently, Marco Rubio had to defend Washington’s tough tariff and customs policies toward India, as well as restrictions on purchases of Russian energy resources. The Secretary of State emphasized the need to conclude a trade agreement with India in the near future in order to meet the goal of doubling trade volume to $500 billion by 2030 (currently around $145 billion).

During the discussion of global and regional issues, certain disagreements arose regarding New Delhi’s policy of close cooperation with Russia and within the BRICS framework, as well as its efforts to establish contacts with China despite existing difficulties. The Americans also appear to be displeased with India’s unwillingness to join Western sanctions against Russia, its policy of large-scale purchases of Russian oil and the expansion of military-defense cooperation with Moscow, New Delhi’s measured stance on the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts, and its uncompromising stance toward Pakistan.

The Indians, in turn, are displeased with Washington and Beijing’s flirtation with Islamabad and American attempts to exert economic pressure on New Delhi. Nevertheless, these talks identified new steps to further strengthen cooperation across a wide range of bilateral issues, including defense and security - particularly energy security - stabilizing the situation in the Pacific region, and coordinating efforts to contain China. Rubio reaffirmed Modi’s invitation to visit Washington again.

New Delhi’s Pragmatism and Strategic Autonomy

Americans seem clearly impressed by the Indian leadership’s approach to forging a comprehensive partnership with the West, but at the same time, Washington makes no secret of its disappointment over India’s strengthening ties with Russia, particularly in the military sphere. Yet it is precisely on this foundation that India’s multi-vector, pragmatic, and self-reliant foreign policy course toward strategic autonomy is built - a course that traditionally rejects any external pressure or dictates. The Americans, it seems, have come to terms with this situation, although they have not entirely abandoned their favourite “divide and conquer” policy. Overall, however, during his bilateral talks with Indian leaders, Marco Rubio managed to some extent to “clear the obstacles” in bilateral relations and overcome a brief - though prolonged due to tariff and customs disputes - cooling-off period that had lasted for months.

An attempt to breathe new life into the “QUAD” format

The second objective of Marco Rubio’s trip to India was to steer the latest QUAD meeting in the right direction, with a focus on deepening cooperation and coordination among the four member nations. It should be noted that, based on the meeting’s outcomes, this goal was largely achieved. Alongside discussions of the most pressing global and regional issues - including Iran, the Middle East, and North Korea (where the Japanese took the lead) - key topics centred on specific parameters and directions for cooperation within the QUAD framework itself.

At the same time, specific action plans and initiatives were developed and launched to deepen the partnership on security issues in the Indo-Pacific region, including in light of the growing Chinese factor. A separate initiative was adopted to strengthen energy security in the Quad region.

They also agreed to expand joint measures in the areas of maritime and energy security, improve port infrastructure - including on islands within the “Quartet’s” area of responsibility - and enhance the collection and exchange of information on maritime surveillance and commercial maritime data. The ministers paid particular attention to the creation of a framework program to strengthen cooperation on critical rare earth minerals. In this regard, as a first step, a groundbreaking and significant US-India agreement was signed to deepen cooperation across the entire chain of extraction, processing, and supply of the most critical minerals and rare earth elements, which are available in substantial quantities in India.

All these points and agreements were reflected in the joint statement adopted by the “Quad.” Apparently, the meeting in New Delhi was an important intermediate step toward holding a “QUAD” summit, which has been unable to convene for various reasons (the last summit took place in the fall of 2024). The Americans would like to hold a new summit this year and work toward transforming the four-party dialogue from a negotiating platform into a more organized institutional mechanism for making decisions on key issues in the Indo-Pacific region.

Three members of the “Quad” - excluding India, which does not support such aspirations and prefers the current format of this generally loose structure - are prepared for such a shift in the Quad’s activities, its transformation into a kind of alliance or even a defense union with a certain degree of anti-China orientation.

Anvar Azimov, Diplomat and political scientist, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Ph.D in History, Senior Research Fellow at the Eurasian Educational Institute of MGIMO of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. Courtesy

https://journal-neo.su/2026/05/27/rubio-in-india-an-attempt-to-smooth-over-differences-and-strengthen-cooperation/