Rubio, who is paying four-day visit to India, calls New Delhi \u201cone of our most important strategic partners in the world\u201d
\n NEW DELHI
\nIndia voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues.
\nPaying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war.
\nIndia\u2019s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a \u201cconvergence of national interests in many areas\u201d but publicly took Rubio to task over President Donald Trump\u2019s assault on visas.
\nJaishankar said he \u201capprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance\u201d.
\n\u201cWhile we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence,\u201d he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation.
\nTrump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped up restrictions and fees for H-1B visas used largely by Indian tech workers, sending applications tumbling.
\nThe Trump administration followed up Friday by saying that applicants for permanent residency, even when in the United States legally, must leave for processing, likely splitting up many families for extended periods.
\nTrump has been influenced by nativist critics who say Indian workers take away skilled jobs from Americans who would have earned more.
\nLast month, Trump reposted a far-right commentator who described India as a \u201chellhole\u201d and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency.
\nAsked about racist remarks in the United States about Indians, Rubio said, \u201cevery country in the world has stupid people\u201d.
\n\u201cOur nation has been enriched by people who come to our country,\u201d said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants.
\nHe said the immigration reforms were \u201cnot India-specific\u201d but in response to a \u201cmigratory crisis\u201d in the United States.
\nAligned on \u2018all\u2019 issues
\nRubio, who is paying an unusually long four-day, four-city trip to India, called the country \u201cone of our most important strategic partners in the world\u201d.
\n\u201cIt begins with the fact of our shared values. We are the two largest democracies,\u201d Rubio said.
\n\u201cOur nations are strategically aligned on all of the key issues that will define the new century \u2014 all the great challenges that are before us now in the modern era,\u201d he said.
\nSuch grand statements of US-India partnership would have raised a few eyebrows over the past two decades as Washington put a top priority on building ties with the billion-plus nation.
\nBut Trump abruptly shook up core assumptions of US foreign policy. He temporarily imposed punishing tariffs on India, held a friendly visit last week to China and has hailed India\u2019s historic adversary Pakistan, which has positioned itself as the key mediator on the Iran war.
\nPakistan has also heaped praise on Trump over his diplomacy in a short war last year with India, which launched unprovoked strikes following the Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
\nIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi annoyed Trump by refusing to credit him with ending the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rubio, who is paying four-day visit to India, calls New Delhi \u201cone of our most important strategic partners in the world\u201d NEW DELHI India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues. Paying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-548172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n