QUESTION: One of the most substantive relationships that India has with any country is the relationship with the United States, and the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio here in New Delhi at the moment. He was in my hometown of Kolkata earlier on today. It's a hectic visit but a very important one at a very busy sort of juncture in international politics.
You had a meeting with Prime Minister Modi in just the last little while. The relationship, India and the U.S., it comes with huge opportunities, but it comes at a time when there are challenges around the world, not least of all because of the situation in West Asia. How did the meeting with the prime minister go? What did you discuss?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It went the way it always does, and that's very positive. The foundation of the relationship between our countries now - and obviously a lot of it is enduring as well - is the relationship between the President - President Trump - and Prime Minister Modi. And it dates back to the first administration under Trump.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And so I think that always makes it easier to have these meetings because of the personal affinity they have to one another. But we have so much alignment on so many issues. And really, as I've said - and I just said a moment ago speaking to our embassy staff here - one of the cornerstones of our approach towards the Indo-Pacific - considering ourselves a Pacific nation, by the way - is the relationship with India, which has only grown. It's grown in the financial realm, and I think there are other opportunities for us.
So as much as anything else, it is a visit to continue to build on a relationship that's finding new areas of potential cooperation and co-production, even in defense, on technology, on - the investments, mutual investments in each other's countries, with over $20 billion of Indian companies now invested in the United States. So really it's a visit to reaffirm, just reinvigorate, and explore new opportunities that we can continue to build on what's already a very vibrant relationship.
QUESTION: And you've extended an invitation to the prime minister, on behalf of the President, to visit Washington, is that right?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Correct, yeah. That's correct.
QUESTION: And what did he say? He's looking forward to that (inaudible)?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, well, obviously anytime you have someone who's as busy as he is - and he travels quite a bit, the prime minister does. He just came back from a foreign trip of a few days.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: But we'd love to have him come to Washington. We also hope to see him at the G20 late next year - late this year, in December, in Miami, which will be at Trump Doral.
QUESTION: Possibly the G7 as well next month in France?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Potentially, yeah. And again - they'll see each other over there, obviously, but we're hosting G20.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: So - but we'd love for him to come beyond just that and continue to build. And so then the job - when that date is set, the job of people like myself and Jai here and others is to sort of find work product that can lead to deliverables so that when our leaders meet, it's not just a social setting but they have some things to announce and to work on.
QUESTION: Yeah. Secretary, you're also over here for Quad that happens on Tuesday. A lot of people say that Quad isn't as important as it once was. Your visit over here, do you believe it's going to bring Quad back onto the plane that it once was? And is - is this Quad relationship at risk, in a sense, from China?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, I don't - I don't know who says it's not - yeah, I don't know who says it's not as important. So I think it's as important as it's ever been. I think it's actually more important than it's ever been. These are four strong allies who, by the way, also happen to be four very strong economies, four countries that have a global reach, and that, together, when we find areas that we can work together on, we can make a huge difference in the world.
You think about the issue, for example, of critical minerals and supply chains. Every one of these four countries in this coalition and this partnership is impacted by that, and everyone has something to bring to the table in that regard. So the issue with the Quad is not that it's not important. It's that it has the ability to focus on so many problems that you can't do them all at once. We have to sort of prioritize - these are the first five, these are the first 10 that we're going to work on together. That's been the challenge with the Quad is figuring out, because we have so many opportunities that we can do together, which are the three or four we want to really start with.
So my first meeting as Secretary of State, literally within an hour of swearing in, was a Quad meeting. And obviously we're working on setting up a Quad leaders' meeting. But the one thing we were able to achieve last year, working at the working levels between the respective countries, is we don't just want the Quad to be a semi-annual gathering of friends. We want it to be a mechanism that leads to cooperation and deliverables.
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: And I think we're making progress in that regard, and we'll build on that on Tuesday.
QUESTION: The import of American oil is important for India, particularly because of the situation now, but also, as the Americans - as you have said, because of the opportunities that exist in the United States. How is that already shaping up in a sense?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It was already shaping up even before what you've seen in the Straits of Hormuz, because India very wisely had made the decision that it was going to begin to diversify its energy imports so that they weren't overly dependent on one part of the world. And I think what we're seeing now in the straits is an example of why you don't want to become overly reliant on one part of the world versus another. America - the United States - has an ample supply of energy to export, so it's beneficial to us and it's beneficial to India. So that was already growing. We think that's going to continue to grow.
And there are other countries in the hemispheres - for example, Venezuela - that I think could also step in and help with that diversification. So it's an example of a place where the cooperation between our two countries becomes so critical. India wants to diversify its energy. We want to diversify the countries we export to. It would be logical that we do it with such close friends.
QUESTION: Yeah. I'd just like to segue on that, on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz right now and Iran.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yes.
QUESTION: The last 48 hours have been tense. The President is in Washington. He was - he had a wedding which he chose not to attend and traveled to Washington, as I understand it. Is there a sense that strikes are imminent?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, I wouldn't characterize it as - in terms of a timeframe. I would say that what's happening now cannot become the status quo and it cannot go on forever. At some point there has to be a resolution to this problem, beginning with the fact that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. And so the issues of enrichment and the highly enriched uranium have to be confronted.
The second is the straits cannot continue to be closed. It is illegal. What they are doing, they are basically threatening and are - and have fired upon commercial vessels - commercial vessels. It is illegal, it is unlawful, under any mechanism, for a country to take international waterways and turn it into theirs and charge a toll for it, which is what Iran is trying to do. So our preference, the President said repeatedly he would prefer to solve those two problems - the nuclear issue and the straits - through a negotiated agreement, through the work of diplomacy, and that's ongoing. Even as I speak to you now, there's work being done in that regard.
That is our preference, that is what we are trying to do, that's what we've done best efforts towards, but ultimately this problem needs to be solved one way or the other. We would prefer it be through diplomacy, but it will be solved one way or the other.
QUESTION: The issue of uranium in Iran, can it physically be removed, the uranium which has been enriched to 60 percent?
SECRETARY RUBIO: It can —
QUESTION: Is that physically a problem?
SECRETARY RUBIO: — absolutely. In fact, interestingly enough, just a few weeks ago - about two weeks ago, we - through their cooperation obviously - were able to go into Venezuela and remove highly enriched uranium that they had there that they didn't want laying around for a variety of reasons. So it's absolutely - from a technical standpoint, it's very doable. It's the Iranian system that has refused to even discuss it. That needs to change. And as I said, this issue is going to be addressed one way or the other. Our preference remains by far to be able to negotiate our way through this and arrive at an agreement. But we're going to solve it one way or the other.
QUESTION: Secretary, there is also an issue of visas for Indians, those who live in the United States. They have to come back to India for green cards now. That obviously concerns a lot of professionals in the United States. Why has America taken this decision?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, it's not about India. It's about the whole world. The United States has taken a decision that it needs to streamline and improve our system of immigration. And the fact of the matter is - and I think every country would understand - and again, this is not about India. This is a global situation that we're dealing with. Our country unfortunately faced a very serious migratory crisis a few years ago. Over 20 million people unlawfully entered the country. We saw abuses of the green card system in many cases as well. And so we decided that we were going to reform it.
Anytime you reform a system, there's going to be some disruptions. There's going to be some hiccups; there's going to be some inconvenience. But we think in the long term, we're going to have a system that's much more stable, much more viable. And I think Indians that seek to come to the United States are going to find themselves with a system that, in the long run, is going to prove to be more efficient and more effective and, I think, better for both them and our country as well.
QUESTION: Yeah. Well, Secretary Rubio, you've got a busy couple of days. Thank you very much for doing this interview.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. Thanks.
QUESTION: Thank you very much.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you very much.
QUESTION: The U.S. Secretary of State over there talking to us about so many issues, but the relationship with India is so very important. He's had a meeting with the prime minister. There are huge opportunities between Washington and New Delhi. Let's see where the road ahead takes us. It's back to the studio.
