Washington: Claiming that the US has to maintain relations with Pakistan despite disagreements, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this foreign policy of the Washington could be beneficial for India as well. According to Rubio, only if Washington has a relationship with Islamabad, it can speak up and be in a position to help discourage the ‘kind of things’ that India is worried about.
“So, these are difficult things to balance, but they have to be as part of our foreign policy, and I think, in a way, could be a positive thing because if we have a relationship and we can speak to them, it could perhaps help us, perhaps put us in a position to help discourage the kinds of things that India is worried about,” he said in an exclusive Network 18 interview.
Rubio has also stated that it is a compulsion for Washington to maintain relations with Pakistan due to the country’s nuclear weapons and geographical importance. However, the US secretary reiterated that the US opposes terrorism and anyone who endorses it.
“In my new role, I am no longer the senator. As the Secretary of State, I have to manage the foreign policy of the United States and that does require us to have relationships with countries, including those that we may have some disagreements with. In the case of Pakistan, it’s a country that we have to have a relationship with. It’s a country that possesses nuclear weapons. It’s a country that, from a geographical standpoint, we need to be able to interact with, in much the same way as the government of India has to have and has a relationship and meets with leaders from Iran,” Rubio had said on Tuesday.
This was his response to a question on whether Washington’s policy towards Pakistan had changed. As a US senator in 2025, Rubio had said he would introduce a bill to cut US security aid to Pakistan if it sponsored terrorism against India.
“We are against terrorism anywhere in the world,” he reiterated.
