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New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on October 25 defended Washington’s closer engagement with Pakistan despite concerns in New Delhi, insisting it did not come at the expense of America’s partnership with India.

Speaking to reporters while en route Doha, Rubio acknowledged that India was “concerned for obvious reasons because of the tensions that have existed between Pakistan and India historically,” but maintained that the US had to engage with multiple partners in pursuit of shared interests.

“We see an opportunity to expand our strategic relationship with Pakistan,” he said. “I don’t think anything we’re doing with Pakistan comes at the expense of our relationship or friendship with India, which is deep, historic, and important.”

Rubio said Washington’s outreach to Islamabad had begun even before the recent India-Pakistan border conflict. “I had already reached out to them and said, look, we are interested in rebuilding an alliance, a strategic partnership with you,” he said. “We’ve had a long history of partnering with Pakistan on counter-terror and things of that nature. We’d like to expand it beyond that, if possible, understanding that there’ll be some difficulties and some challenges.”

As part of this revived engagement, the United States and Pakistan signed an agreement to develop and export rare earth minerals, seen as a key strategic component of Washington’s efforts to reduce dependence on China for critical supply chains. According to reports in........

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