New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday (May 23) that Washington would not allow Iran to “hold the global energy market hostage”, as the two sides discussed West Asia, energy security and critical supply chains against the backdrop of a fragile ceasefire with Tehran. Their meeting covered the war in West Asia, energy security, supply chains and emerging technologies, according to a State Department readout that also said Rubio pitched US energy products as having “the potential to diversify India’s energy supply”.Even as Rubio pitched for increased US energy imports, he also “emphasised that the United States will not let Iran hold the global energy market hostage”. The senior Trump administration official also extended an invitation from President Donald Trump for Modi to visit the White House. The invitation was the most concrete outcome of a day otherwise marked by expansive rhetoric but limited specifics.It was not immediately clear whether the proposed visit would be a standalone bilateral engagement or tied to the G20 summit the United States is hosting this year. Modi last visited the White House in February 2025, early in Trump’s second term. Trump himself had been expected to travel to India for a Quad leaders’ summit that New Delhi has been seeking to convene, but the visit never materialised.Rubio arrived in India on Saturday for his first official visit, kicking off a four day trip aimed at shoring up a bilateral relationship strained by tariff disputes, Washington’s renewed closeness with Pakistan and the continuing fallout of the war on Iran.He met Modi at Seva Theerth in his first engagement in New Delhi that also took him to Kolkata and will include stops in Agra, Jaipur and a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on May 26.In a post on X, Modi said they “discussed sustained progress in the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and issues related to regional and global peace and security”. He added that “India and the United States will continue to work closely for the global good”.A Press Information Bureau statement said Rubio briefed the prime minister on progress in bilateral cooperation across defence, strategic technologies, trade and investment, energy security, connectivity, education and people-to-people ties. Rubio shared the US perspective on “various regional and global issues, including the situation in West Asia”.Modi “reaffirmed India’s consistent support for peace efforts and reiterated the call for peaceful resolution of the conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy,” the statement said. There was no mention about the invitation from White House or whether it had been accepted.Soon after the meeting, Rubio wrote on X that they had “discussed the situation in the Middle East and US-India partnership in energy, securing critical supply chains and collaboration on emerging technologies.”While Rubio tours India on a four-day schedule of meetings, cultural stops and diplomatic engagements, Washington’s attention is clearly elsewhere.President Trump on Friday cancelled plans to attend his eldest son Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas, writing on Truth Social that “circumstances pertaining to government” required him to remain at the White House. He had earlier told reporters it was “bad timing” because of “a thing called Iran.” CBS News reported, citing sources with direct knowledge that the administration was preparing for a fresh round of military strikes on Iran in case diplomatic talks collapsed.Pakistan army chief Asim Munir concluded his whirlwind one day visit to Tehran on Saturday. Meanwhile, a Qatari negotiating team also arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the United States.Rubio himself, speaking to reporters ahead of the Roosevelt House reception in New Delhi on Saturday evening, suggested a deal could be close. “There’s been some progress made. Even as I speak to you now, there’s some work being done,” he said. “There is a chance that whether it’s later today, tomorrow, in a couple of days, we may have something to say.”Even as Washington remained preoccupied with the Iran conflict, Rubio’s task in India appeared partly aimed at reassuring New Delhi, where there is a growing perception that India has been strategically sidelined in the second Trump administration.At the inauguration of the new Support Annexe building of the US embassy, Rubio recalled that his very first meeting as Secretary of State, within hours of being sworn in in January 2025, had been a Quad meeting.“We did it again last year in a second, in a different setting, and we chose to do it here,” he said of Monday’s Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. “We wanted to do it here, not just because of our commitment to that structure of work, but also as a tangible sign of what an important role India plays in the United States, and in our posture, and in our approach to the Indo-Pacific.”He described India as being “at the cornerstone of how the United States approaches the Indo-Pacific” and spoke of a “personal relationship” between Trump and Modi “that dates back to the first administration.”Tuesday meeting will be the third Quad ministerial without a leader-level summit, which analysts have described as an effective downgrade of the grouping. Trump visited Beijing on a state visit last week, reinforcing the impression among Indian observers that the US president was seeking a more stable relationship with China rather than sustained confrontation.When the administration released its national security strategy, there was barely a mention of India, with the focus instead on promoting US primacy in Latin America and battling Europeans on cultural issues.Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in March that China was a lesson not to make “the same mistakes with India” by letting another country best the United States commercially, which had raised hackled in New Delhi.Before leaving for his trip to Sweden and India, Rubio had indicated that energy would remain a central theme of his New Delhi sojourn, which he conveyed to the Indian leadership.India imports more than 80% of its energy needs and has been hit hard by the near-total disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since Iran retaliated against the US-Israeli military campaign by choking the waterway. More than 40% of India’s crude imports and nearly 90% of its LPG supplies normally pass through the strait, making the country among the most exposed major Asian economies to disruptions there.The fallout has already begun feeding into domestic inflation and fuel prices. State-run retailers on Friday raised petrol and diesel prices for the third time this month.Before arriving, Rubio told reporters in Miami that the United States wanted to sell India “as much energy as they’ll buy” and pointed to the country’s “historic levels” of production and export. More energy imports would also help it narrow a goods trade deficit that stood at $58.2 billion in 2025, a persistent irritant for Trump.But the United States is not a straightforward replacement for India’s traditional suppliers. Shipping energy from the country is a longer and costlier route. The energy crisis that has hit India’s imports was itself precipitated by the US-Israeli attack on Iran. The US has given India a second waiver on buying Russian oil, but New Delhi is expected to push for further concessions.US ambassador to India Sergio Gor, introducing Rubio at the embassy event, pointed to Indian companies committing $20.5 billion to the US economy and described the new building as “a gateway to America for the innovators who support hundreds of thousands of jobs in US communities and fuel our quest to reach $500 billion in bilateral trade in the coming years”.That $500 billion target was set when India signed an interim trade agreement in February, committing to buy American goods including energy, aircraft, technology and agricultural products, as per the White House. The deal brought Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods down from 50% to 18%. When the US Supreme Court in late February struck down Trump’s sweeping tariff order, the effective rate dropped further to 10%.More than three months later, a comprehensive deal has not been finalised. The Trump administration is pursuing trade investigations under unfair trade practices legislation widely expected to restore much of the prior levies.Rubio announced at the embassy event the introduction of an “America First visa scheduling tool that prioritises business professionals” in the consular system. He and Gor also spoke at length about people-to-people ties and the contributions of Indian workers and entrepreneurs to the American economy.The announcement came a day after US Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a new green card policy which would force legal migrants to leave the country to apply for permanent residency from a US diplomatic mission abroad.In an interview to NDTV, Rubio said, “It’s not about India. It’s about the whole world.”Indians were the third largest country of origin for immigrants who obtained green card in 2023, after Mexico and Cuba. Indian legal migrants have also been affected by tighter H1B visa policies, which have led to longer processing delays.