New Delhi: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio The President on Monday strongly refuted accusations of rising anti-India rhetoric in the US Donald Trump Still a ‘big fan’ of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Rubio addressed the controversy in an interview in Delhi, rejecting claims of systemic US hostility towards Indians and reiterating Washington’s commitment to strengthening ties with New Delhi.“The president is a big fan of India, a big fan of Prime Minister Modi. If the president didn’t want me to be here, I wouldn’t be here,” Rubio said.“He’s not going to send someone like Sergio Gore as our ambassador, someone who is very close to the president,” he added.The question to Rubio is widely believed to be a reference to Trump’s past remarks, in which he reportedly described India and China as “hell” while criticizing the United States for abusing birthright citizenship laws.His comments came amid controversy after a video of an interaction in which he responded to questions about alleged racist remarks against American Indians and Indian-Americans went viral.In clarifying his previous response, Rubio also said he had asked reporters to specify who made the alleged remarks but had not received a clear answer.“The bottom line is, in the modern day, you go online and there are people saying all kinds of crazy things. I don’t even know if they’re real people or who they are,” Rubio noted.The initial question referenced alleged “racist remarks” against American Indians, which many interpreted as an indirect reference to Trump’s previous remarks about immigration and birthright citizenship.Earlier, during the exchange, a reporter asked: “There are a lot of racist remarks against Indians and Indian-Americans in the United States. You know that this goes against the basic premise of India-US relations. What do you think about this?”When Rubio sought clarification as to who had made the comments, the reporter responded: “We’ve all seen the comments. We’ve seen the endorsement of the comments.”In response to the widespread accusations, Rubio said such comments should not be considered representative of the country as a whole. “I don’t know how to fix this, but I’m going to take it very seriously,” Rubio said.“I’m sure there are comments online and elsewhere because there are stupid people in every country in the world. I’m sure [there are] There are stupid people here; there are stupid people in America who make stupid comments all the time,” he added.Rubio, who is on a four-day visit to India, also responded to questions about Pakistan’s role in facilitating communication during the current US-Iran conflict.Asked whether India had concerns about Pakistan acting as a mediator, Rubio said New Delhi’s concerns about Pakistan remained focused on terrorism.“Obviously, they’re always concerned. India always points out that there are armed terrorist groups operating on Pakistani soil and targeting India. They’re always concerned about that,” Rubio said.“But as for their role as mediator and mediator in the Iran situation, that was never mentioned. I don’t think they will complain about that. I mean, their issues with Pakistan are different,” he added.
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