S Jaishankar with Marco Rubio

NEW DELHI: United States secretary of state Marco Rubio on Sunday called India one of America’s most important strategic partners, saying the relationship between the two countries goes far beyond traditional diplomacy.Speaking at a joint press conference with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Rubio said the India-US partnership was based on aligned interests and cooperation across several global issues.“A strategic partnership is something very different,” Rubio said. “A strategic partnership is when your interests as two nations are aligned, and you work together strategically to solve those problems,” he said.Rubio said the wide range of areas in which both countries cooperate reflected the strength of ties between Washington and New Delhi.“The list of issues that we work together with India on, the breadth of scope of them, is what highlights the fact that India is an important strategic partner in the United States, one of our most important strategic partners in the world,” Rubio said.Rubio also referred to the democratic values shared by both countries.“Democracies respond directly to their people, and you have to respond constantly,” he said.On terrorism, Rubio said India and the US had both suffered because of global terror networks and had developed strong cooperation on counterterrorism.“On the issue of terrorism, both of our countries have suffered, both directly and indirectly, because of global terrorist networks. There was a strong counterterrorism alignment as a result of that,” he said.He also spoke about cooperation in emerging technologies and innovation, saying both countries were aligned on managing opportunities and risks in the sector.“There is a tremendous strategic alliance between our countries and agreement on that point,” Rubio said.Rubio further said India and the US were working together to ensure free movement of global trade, especially in international waters and airspace.“Likewise, on the unimpeded flow of commerce, especially in international airspace and international waters, this is true in the Indo-Pacific, ensuring that there’s a free and open Indo-Pacific, but it extends beyond the Indo-Pacific,” he said.Earlier, Jaishankar and Rubio held delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi as part of ongoing high-level engagement between the two countries.The meeting was attended by senior officials from both sides. Jaishankar was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal and other officials, while Rubio was joined by US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor and members of the American delegation.During the meeting, Rubio described the first day of his India visit as “fantastic” and said the US and India were not just allies but “strategic allies”.“It has already been a fantastic first day. We’re looking forward to our visits and our talks today and learning more about the country… As you’ve highlighted, the United States and India aren’t just allies; we’re strategic allies, and that’s of critical importance. We obviously work with countries all over the world and all over the region on a variety of issues as they emerge, but our strategic partnership is what sets this relationship apart, because it’s not simply limited to a region. It extends to opportunities to cooperate globally in different regions of the world, and that includes potentially in the Western Hemisphere and places like that,” he said.Rubio added that there was still a “lot to work on” between the two countries and described India and the US as the world’s two “largest democracies”.He said that itself created a strong base for “incredible cooperation” and added that the visit was aimed at “continuing to build on what is already a very solid and strong strategic partnership.”