United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the ongoing negotiations for an India-US trade deal were among the factors Washington considered when deciding to waive sanctions and tariff provisions linked to purchases of Russian oil and gas. Speaking at a press conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, during the C5+1 ministerial meeting with Central Asian nations, Rubio said the two countries were "very close" to finalising the agreement.
"We're trying to finalise a trade deal with India right now. We're very close to doing that. So that's one of the things we take into consideration when the President makes a decision about national security waivers and things of that nature," Rubio said, referring to President Donald Trump's recent decisions on Russia-related energy measures.
Rubio explained that the administration had been forced to grant waivers over recent months because of the impact sanctions were having on global energy supplies and prices. "We have had to waive sanctions over the past few months, looking at the global supplies, looking at global prices, and the impact it was having on other countries. I know diesel prices are high in the United States, but they're really, really high in a bunch of other countries around the world, and then we have to manage all of these things," he said.
The remarks come days after the US signed a diesel purchase deal with Russia and announced a pause on the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. President Trump signed an executive order implementing the Act while simultaneously waiving the tariffs it imposed on buyers of Russian oil, days before the measures were set to come into effect.
The October waiver order had provided for an additional 100 per cent duty on goods from the five largest importers of Russian-origin crude oil and natural gas if they knowingly made qualifying new purchases on or after October 18. It also provided for a 100 per cent duty on goods from the five largest facilitators of Russian oil sanctions evasion. The order waived these specified measures rather than repealing the legislation.
Trump had wanted up to 60 days to assess the economic implications of the measures, though the executive order did not specify a fixed end date for the waiver.
Rubio cautioned that the trade negotiations were one consideration among several, not the sole reason for the waiver. His remarks indicated that the proposed agreement figured in the discussions alongside energy-market conditions and bilateral relations. The administration also had to weigh what he called the complex set of factors facing each country.
"Every country has a complex set of factors that they have to take into account and that for some countries, it's very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources. That's not an excuse, but all that has to be balanced when you make foreign policy," Rubio said, responding to a question on the waiver and its impact on the Russia-Ukraine war. "Geography is real," he added, noting that some countries find it very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources.
India remains one of the world's largest importers of Russian crude, having sharply increased its purchases after Western sanctions reshaped global oil flows. Rubio acknowledged this reality, noting that India was still getting a substantial amount of energy from Russia because it was hard to pivot from one day to the next.
The comments come ahead of Rubio's expected visit to India on Tuesday, when he will travel to Mumbai for talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during a three-day visit. He is also expected to visit Jamnagar in Gujarat, home to the world's largest single-site oil refinery, underscoring the energy dimension of the relationship.
On the trade front, momentum has been building. The US and India announced in February that they had reached terms on an interim framework deal aimed at resolving a bilateral trade dispute. Under that framework, the US cut its reciprocal tariff on Indian goods from 25 per cent to 18 per cent and removed an additional 25 per cent duty linked to India's purchases of Russian oil.
Last week, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the first tranche of the India-US bilateral trade agreement had been finalised and was undergoing legal drafting. "The US bilateral trade agreement's first tranche has been finalised. It's going through the final contours, the legal drafting, and we hope to be able to finalize that soon and operationalise it once we get a comparable or competitive advantage over our peer countries," Goyal said.
At its core, the negotiation is an exchange: lower and more predictable US tariffs on Indian goods in return for wider access for American products in the Indian market. Dairy access is reported to be the biggest remaining obstacle in the talks.
The waiver decision also has to be read against the backdrop of earlier tariff threats. Washington had previously threatened penal duties on countries buying Russian energy, a move that directly affected Indian exporters. The removal of the additional 25 per cent duty in February and the current waiver have provided temporary relief, though the tariffs have been deferred rather than permanently cancelled, and the legislation remains in place.
The US could revisit the waiver, which means the relief offers India only temporary certainty.
For India, the stakes are significant on both fronts. The country imports the bulk of its crude oil, and affordable Russian supplies have helped refiners and the wider economy manage costs even as global prices remained volatile. At the same time, securing a stable, lower-tariff regime with the United States, one of India's largest trading partners, would give exporters the predictability they have sought for years.
Rubio's linkage of the two issues also signals how deeply energy security and trade policy have become intertwined in the bilateral relationship. By acknowledging that India's energy constraints featured in the waiver decision, Washington has effectively recognised the practical limits of asking large developing economies to abandon established supply lines overnight.
The coming days will test whether the momentum translates into a concluded agreement. Rubio's visit, with Jaishankar talks and the Jamnagar refinery visit on the schedule, puts energy and trade at the centre of the agenda. If the first tranche is indeed close to legal finalisation, an announcement could follow soon, though both sides have previously cautioned that the remaining details, including dairy access, will require careful handling.
For now, Indian refiners and exporters alike will take heart from the dual signals: a sanctions waiver that buys time on the energy front, and a trade deal described by both capitals as within reach.
(Reporting based on The Indian Express and Hindustan Times.)