India, US seek to scale up energy cooperation amid growing demand

India and the United States have discussed strengthening energy cooperation and welcomed the recent growth in bilateral energy trade, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his visit to India.

“You're all aware that our government's fundamental responsibility is to address the needs of 1.4 billion people. Obviously ensuring the accessibility and affordability of energy for them is our prime objective. The Secretary and I therefore welcome the expansion in our energy trade in recent months,” Jaishankar said.

He stressed that ensuring energy security requires India to maintain multiple large, reliable, and affordable sources of supply, adding that the United States meets these criteria in many ways, as do some other countries.

“So we will continue to diversify and maintain multiple sources of supply at the most reasonable cost because at the end of the day we have an obligation to our people to provide them energy at affordable and accessible rates,” Jaishankar said.

The Indian foreign minister also noted that cooperation in civilian nuclear energy and critical minerals was discussed during the talks.

By Jeyhun Aghazada