Indian companies have made nearly $20 billion worth of investments in the US, said Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State. To take the trade partnership forward, a US team will soon be in India to discuss the bilateral trade agreement.
“India is an important strategic partner of the US, one of our most important ones in the world,” said Rubio, during his recent visit to Delhi. “It begins with the fact that we have shared values. We are the two largest democracies in the world. That in itself is enough for us to align our interests, because our leaders respond directly to the people on a regular basis. It means I have to go back and justify to the American people every decision we make. And the President has to do the same, explaining why it’s good for our country. And our counterparts here in India have to do exactly the same thing. They have to respond to the people of India about why your partnership with the US or your stance on any issue, for that matter, is for the benefit of your country”.
This was Rubio’s first visit to Delhi since his appointment as the Secretary of State. He also met Prime Minister Modi during his visit. “During the Secretary’s visit to the PM, some global and regional issues were discussed and, in our subsequent meeting at the embassy, we took up developments pertaining to West Asia, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent, as also East Asia,” explained India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar. “As far as the defence and security co-operation is concerned, the 10-year Major Defence Partnership Framework Agreement was recently renewed. A comprehensive Underwater Domain Awareness Roadmap was also signed. We discussed the importance of taking into account the ‘Make in India’ approach and lessons drawn from recent conflicts, while going forward in the defence domain”.
US is India’s largest export destination and one of its top overall trading partners, with bilateral goods and services trade hovering at about $200 billion annually. Both nations are actively negotiating a comprehensive Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) aimed at reducing tariffs and expanding bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030.
“On the economic front, we spoke about the value of concluding at an early date the final text of the interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade,” Jaishankar added. “This will be an important step towards a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement, which was envisaged during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US in February 2025. We had a meeting recently in Washington and our expectation is that an American team would be visiting India soon for that purpose”.
Secretary Rubio also said that the bilateral partnership with India was not limited to a regional one. “We find a lot of alignment in our views – whether it is on issues of mutual interest or regarding what’s happening now in the Strait of Hormuz and beyond,” said Rubio. “There was strong alignment in our views on counter-terrorism, too.”
A milestone moment
Meanwhile, the two nations signed a bilateral Critical Minerals Framework, marking a milestone in the strategic partnership to ensure that the foundational elements required for advanced technology and energy are available within trusted networks. This agreement builds upon the groundwork laid in February 2026 during high-level meetings in Washington DC, when Secretary Rubio launched the Forum on Resource Geo-strategic Engagement (FORGE). Through this framework, the US and India will engage in international efforts to protect sensitive supply chains from coercive market practices and reduce collective vulnerability to single-source monopolies.
“The US government is mobilising unprecedented resources to secure critical mineral supply chains, supporting projects with more than $30 billion in letters of interest, investments, loans and other supports in partnership with the private sector,” reveals a statement by the US Embassy in Delhi. This framework sets a path towards reliable and resilient mineral supply chains, reinforcing key objectives established by President Trump and Prime Minister Modi in the US-India joint leaders’ statement.