The State Department read-out on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s September 23 meeting with his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, in New York, spoke of their “strategic partnership” and all that, but then revealed the nasty part: the Trump administration’s insistence that India, too, must cut economic ties to Russia and Iran and buy U.S. products instead, no matter how much more expensive they may be. Otherwise, Rubio threatened, India will be hit with U.S. economic sanctions. President Trump had signed the so-called “Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026” into law on Sept. 18, which empowers the President to slap up to 100% tariffs on imports of any country which keeps trading with Russia, and extends the long-standing U.S. unilateral economic sanctions against those trade with Iran.

The State Department readout worded the threat this way: “The two also discussed sanctions that could be leveled against states that engage economically with Russia and Iran. The Secretary emphasized that the United States remains well-positioned to help regional partners address their energy security challenges.”

India, with its 1.4 billion people, is not about to cut economic ties with either country. In particular, it purchases a significant portion of its oil and gas from Russia, a key part of their otherwise growing trade relationship. Iran, in turn, is a significant market for Indian rice. Furthermore, the three nations—India, Russia and Iran—are partners in the International North-South Transport Corridor, a major trade connectivity project which none of them are about to close down.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not released any read-out on the Rubio-Jaishankar meeting, but in opening the “High-Level Ministerial Meeting of Like-minded Global South Countries and Friends” held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly the day before, Jaishankar had identified seven priorities for deliberation by the attending Global South countries. The second priority named was: “Energy security is at the heart of development. Availability and prices should not be manipulated for political ends.”