Rubio called India an "ally" but noted that Delhi's Russian oil imports were hampering its relationship with Washington.

All these statements came a day after US President Donald Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on India and an additional penalty on Indian imports in the country. For this, Trump gave the reason for India-Russia trade ties. In one of his posts on Truth Social Trump said that the US has a massive trade deficit with India.

Declaring that the US has a massive trade deficit with India, Trump had said that while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their tariffs are far too high.