In an unusual move, Rubio says Venezuela leader to visit India

NEW DELHI: Ahead of his visit to India, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said Thursday that the US wants to sell India as much energy as possible and that acting Venezuela president Delcy Rodriguez is travelling to New Delhi next week - an unusual announcement of a foreign leader's travel that shows the new US influence over Caracas.

Rubio arrives in India on Saturday for a four-day visit that will see him travelling to Kolkata, New Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

Rubio mentioned the visit of the Venezuela leader while underscoring the significance of growing India-US energy ties. Govt sources, however, clarified that Rodriguez was scheduled to visit India for the first International Big Cat Alliance summit that was being organised in conjunction with the India-Africa summit and both meetings will now be rescheduled.

Washington is exploring the possibility of India procuring crude from Venezuela, which remains under American oversight, to squeeze Russia's oil revenues. "We want to sell them as much energy as they will buy. We are at historic levels of US production and US exports. We were already in talks with them to do more, we want to be a bigger part of their portfolio," said Rubio, ahead of his departure to Sweden, where he will attend a meeting of Nato foreign ministers.

"We also think that there are opportunities with Venezuelan oil. It is my understanding that the interim President of Venezuela will be travelling to India next week as well," added Rubio.

The secretary went on to say that there's a lot to work on with "great ally and partner" India.

He's expected to have a bilateral meeting with his counterpart S Jaishankar on Sunday and participate in a meeting of Quad ministers on Tuesday.

"We do a lot of good work with them. So, this is an important trip. I am glad we are able to do it. We will also meet with the Quad there...I am glad we are able to do now in India and we will do one later in the year as well," he said.

Responding to statements from the Trump administration earlier, Indian govt had said that consistent with its approach to energy security, India remains open to exploring the commercial merits of any crude supply options, including from Venezuela.

According to the Indian authorities, the country's energy procurement decisions remain independent and are governed strictly by market economics and national interest-regardless of external waivers or foreign policy pressures.