United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Malaysia on Monday, as the two countries push trade talks and ease tensions over Washington’s punishing tariffs.

Few details were released, but Rubio’s meeting with Jaishankar is the highest-level contact since the US imposed sanctions last week on Russian oil companies, a key source of India’s crude supplies.

Jaishankar posted a photograph on social media showing him smiling and shaking hands with Rubio, saying he “appreciated the discussion on our bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues”.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Malaysia, which US President Donald Trump attended in person and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed by video link.

Modi had backtracked from his proposed visit to Kuala Lumpur to attend the Asean summit, with Malaysia’s PM Anwar Ibrahim saying that his Indian counterpart had cited the “ongoing Deepavali celebrations” as the reason for the change in plans.

Relations between Washington and New Delhi plummeted in August after Trump raised tariffs to 50 per cent, with US officials accusing India of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying Moscow’s discounted oil.

Trump, who spoke to Modi last week by telephone, has claimed that the Indian leader has agreed to cut Russian oil imports — something New Delhi has not commented on.

A White House official said New Delhi had halved its purchases of Russian oil, but Indian sources said no immediate reduction had been seen.

Last month, the US added a “one-time” $100,000 fee to H-1B skilled worker visas, with India accounting for around three-quarters of the annual recipients.

India had said the Trump administration’s move was likely to have humanitarian consequences, warning of potential disruptions for families affected by the policy.

Ties with Pakistan not at expense of friendship with India: Rubio

Yesterday, Rubio said the US sees an opportunity to expand its strategic relationship with Pakistan and that the recent strengthening of ties between the two countries does not come at the expense of Washington’s relationship with New Delhi.

“They really haven’t,“ he said, when asked whether India had raised any concerns about the “stronger relationship” between the US and Pakistan.

“I mean, we know they’re concerned for obvious reasons because of the tensions that have existed between Pakistan and India historically. But, I think they have to understand, we have to have relations with a lot of different countries,” he told a press briefing.

He continued, “We see an opportunity to expand our strategic relationship with Pakistan, and I think we’ve made — that’s our job, is to try to figure out how many countries we can find how we can work with on things of common interest.

“So, I think the Indians are very mature when it comes to diplomacy and things of that nature. Look, they have some relationships with countries that we don’t have relationships with. So, it’s part of a mature, pragmatic foreign policy. 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.”