Jaishankar, Rubio meet amid commerce, visa tensions

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a bid to restore relations ruptured by a lot of U.S. actions, together with the 50% tariffs and sanctions on Russian oil imports, and to safe a date for the Quad Leaders Summit in India later this yr. Both leaders shook palms in a photograph alternative earlier than the assembly, however didn’t make any remarks.

The talks got here whilst Indian and U.S. commerce negotiators ready for his or her subsequent spherical of talks. Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal can be within the U.S. this week, having been invited by the Donald Trump administration.

In their first in-person assembly because the tariffs had been imposed in early July after which subsequently doubled, Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Rubio met in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). U.S. President Donald Trump will handle the UNGA on Tuesday (September 23, 2025), whereas Mr. Jaishankar will handle the UNGA on September 27. While each Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Goyal are set to satisfy their counterparts — Mr. Rubio and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick respectively — all eyes will probably be on any assembly with Mr. Trump, who travelled to New York on Monday (September 22, 2025).

Mr. Jaishankar is on his fifth official go to to the U.S. prior to now 9 months, and is anticipated to journey to Washington subsequent. During his final official go to, Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Rubio had held the Quad Foreign Minister’s Meeting together with their counterparts from Australia and Japan, and any dialogue on a confirmed date for the Quad summit, which might convey U.S. President Trump and different Quad leaders to Delhi for the assembly, resulting from be held in November, will probably be carefully watched.

The Foreign Minister’s assembly in New York got here days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke over the phone and agreed to renew India-U.S. commerce talks that the U.S. pulled out of in August, sparking hopes of a bigger rapprochement between the 2 international locations. However, prior to now week, the U.S. has additionally handed extra punitive actions, like cancelling a waiver for India’s Chabahar port venture in Iran, visa revocations for Indian company executives for alleged involvement within the fentanyl unlawful drug commerce, as nicely imposing a $100,000 charge for H-1B visa purposes, a big majority of which come from Indians.

On Saturday (September 20, 2025), Mr. Trump repeated his declare that he had introduced the India-Pakistan battle to an finish, one other reason for a pressure in India-U.S. relations as India has denied the declare on a lot of events. “With India, I stated, we’re not going to do any commerce in the event you’re going to combat. And they’ve nuclear weapons… and so they stopped,” Mr. Trump stated, talking about his efforts to make sure a ceasefire to Operation Sindoor on May 10.

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According to U.S. media reviews, Mr. Trump can be anticipated to repeat claims on “stopping wars”, together with the India-Pakistan, Egypt-Ethiopia, Rwanda-Congo, Thailand-Cambodia, Israel-Iran, and Azerbaijan-Armenia conflicts throughout his UNGA handle.