India on Sunday voiced concerns over the United States’ tightening visa policies, marking a rare public criticism even as New Delhi maintained that it remained broadly aligned with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on major global issues.
During his first official visit to India, Rubio said both democracies shared common positions on key international matters, downplaying recent tensions linked to trade disputes, China and the Iran conflict.
India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar acknowledged that the two countries continued to share a “convergence of national interests in many areas”, but openly raised concerns over US President Donald Trump’s visa restrictions.
Jaishankar said he had informed Rubio about the difficulties faced by legitimate travellers during the visa process, stressing that while India was cooperating with efforts to curb illegal migration, lawful mobility should not suffer as a result.
He emphasised that visa access remained vital for technological cooperation between India and the United States.
Trump, who has made limiting non-Western immigration a central part of his political agenda, has tightened regulations and increased fees for H-1B visas, which are widely used by Indian technology professionals. The measures have reportedly caused a sharp decline in applications.
The Trump administration further announced on Friday that applicants seeking permanent residency — even those legally residing in the United States — would now have to leave the country for visa processing, a move expected to separate many families for prolonged periods.
Trump has also faced criticism from some nationalist supporters who argue that Indian workers reduce employment opportunities and wages for Americans in skilled sectors.
Last month, Trump reposted comments by a far-right commentator who described India in offensive terms and falsely claimed that Indian immigrants lacked English-language proficiency.
Responding to questions about racist rhetoric targeting Indians in the United States, Rubio said that “every country in the world has stupid people”.
Rubio, whose parents immigrated from Cuba, said the United States had benefited greatly from immigration and insisted that the new restrictions were not specifically aimed at India, but were part of a broader response to what he called a migration crisis in America.
Rubio, currently on a four-day visit across four Indian cities, described India as one of Washington’s most important strategic partners.
He said the partnership was rooted in shared democratic values, calling India and the United States the world’s two largest democracies.
According to Rubio, both countries were strategically aligned on all major issues expected to shape the future global order.
For nearly two decades, strong US-India relations had been viewed as a cornerstone of Washington’s strategy in Asia, particularly as a counterbalance to China’s growing influence.
However, Trump’s recent foreign policy decisions have unsettled some of those assumptions. His administration temporarily imposed steep tariffs on Indian goods, held a high-profile visit to China last week and publicly praised Pakistan for its role in mediation efforts linked to the Iran conflict.
Pakistan has also commended Trump’s diplomatic role during last year’s brief conflict with India, which erupted after India launched what Pakistan described as unprovoked strikes following the Pahalgam attack in India-occupied Kashmir.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly irritated Trump by refusing to acknowledge his role in ending the conflict.
When asked whether India objected to Pakistan’s increasing diplomatic role, Jaishankar said the United States was free to choose its own partners and admitted that differences between New Delhi and Washington were inevitable at times.
He noted that the Trump administration had openly adopted an “America First” foreign policy approach, while India’s priority remained “India First”.