Mumbai: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged businesses to view the India-US relationship as a strategic partnership spanning technology, trade and security, saying the two countries were “perfectly aligned” on issues that would shape the 21st century, even as he acknowledged that disagreements between them would persist.




Addressing a gathering of India Inc ’s leading business figures at a Freedom 250 event at BKC, Rubio said the relationship between the two countries could help shape the future of the global economy, particularly as advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing transform industries and societies.




“I truly believe the relationship between the United States and India is defining, in many ways, in a positive way, what the 21st century can look like,” he said.




The gathering included Noel Tata (Tata Trusts), Anand Mahindra (Mahindra Group), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon), Ashok P Hinduja (Hinduja Group), Amit Dixit (Blackstone), Hitendra Dave (HSBC India), K Balasubramanian (Citi India) and Rahul Badhwar (JPMorgan Chase).




Rubio identified emerging technologies and secure trade routes as two areas in which the countries’ interests converge.




“The United States and India are aligned, perfectly aligned,” he said, referring to the challenge of harnessing new technologies for public benefit. “We view it the same way. We have the same expertise. We have the same talented people working on it, from engineers to creative thinkers and innovators.”




He also linked economic growth to the security of international shipping routes, arguing that businesses needed the freedom to move goods across borders and reach markets.




For India and the US, he said, this required “a free and secure Indo-Pacific” in which “no nation can claim dominance or ownership of international shipping lanes”. He described the two countries as “100% and perfectly aligned” on the issue.




Rubio acknowledged that the two countries would not agree on every issue but said their shared interests outweighed their differences. “No two nations on earth will ever be perfectly aligned on every issue, and of course, there will be times and points of disagreement,” he said. “But on the core issues that matter, the core issues that define the national interest of both India and the United States, the alignment between our countries is extraordinary.”




The speech did not signal any immediate change in tariffs, regulatory policy or market access.




Rubio said the decisions being taken today on geopolitics, economics, trade and commerce would affect generations to come. He described India and the US as two powerful and advanced countries with the ability to shape the international order together.




Rubio also stressed the long-term nature of the partnership, saying the two countries should look beyond commemorating the US’s 250th anniversary to what they could achieve together over the next 250 years.




He said he believed Washington should engage more frequently with India, adding that he planned to return in three months. He described the region as central to the course of the century, saying its future would be shaped by developments taking place there now.