New Delhi: India is open to enabling the return of its citizens who illegally immigrated to the US and strongly opposes illegal mobility and migration of its nationals to any country, External Affairs S Jaishankar assured US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the first bilateral meeting held by the Trump administration just hours after the Inauguration Day.
The issue of illegal immigration was brought up during the meeting by Rubio in Washington DC on Wednesday. Rubio “highlighted the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthening economic ties with India and addressing issues related to irregular migration,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated in a readout following the meeting.
Speaking on illegal immigration, Jaishankar said the Indian government holds a principled position on mobility for all countries and supports legal immigration of its citizens because “we do believe in a global workplace”.
“We obviously are very much supportive of legal mobility, because we do believe in a global workplace. We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. So at the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration, because you also know that when something illegal happens, many other illegal activities get joined on to it. And it is not desirable,” he said.
“It is certainly not reputationally good. So we have with every country and the US is no exception. We have always taken the view that if there are any of our citizens who are not here legally, if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been, you know, open to legitimate return to India,” he added.
India-US discuss economic ties
While there was no mention of discussions on tariffs, Rubio reaffirmed the new administration’s intent to “strengthen economic ties.”
Both sides are exploring the possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the AI Summit in Paris, scheduled for 11-12 February.
Jaishankar told reporters that “levels of trust are very high” and described it as “a more systemic sentiment.”
“There’s a very visible chemistry between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump, and that also, in a sense, percolates through the system and reinforces that comfort and trust… So, there was a very visible appetite to get this relationship moving to do more, to set bigger goals. So that was a sort of feeling in the room,” he said.
