Former White House official Lisa Curtis has said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent visit to India helped stabilise strained Washington-New Delhi ties, but argued that only President Donald Trump himself could fully restore confidence in the bilateral relationship. Curtis made the remarks in an interview on 28 May, offering one of the sharpest assessments yet of where US-India relations stand under the second Trump administration.

Rubio Visit: Stabilising, Not Resetting

Curtis, who served as Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021, described Rubio's India trip as a necessary but limited intervention. 'I think it was very important for Secretary Rubio to go to India to try to repair some of the damage done to the US-India relationship over the last year,' she said. 'I think his visit did serve as a kind of band-aid to relations.'

Curtis, currently Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Programme at the Centre for a New American Security, also noted that the Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting held during Rubio's trip was 'very symbolic' and demonstrated that the grouping 'still had momentum even though the leaders did not meet.'

What Has Unsettled India

Curtis identified several developments over the past year that had, in her assessment, built up unease within India. These included US tariffs, immigration restrictions, and what she characterised as Washington's growing cosiness with Pakistan. 'This is all built up in the Indian psyche,' she said, adding that 'the second Trump administration has not been prioritising India and its relationship with India as the first Trump administration did.'

On a more positive note, she pointed to Washington's decision to extend a waiver allowing India to continue importing Russian oil as a development viewed favourably in New Delhi.

India's China Anxiety

Curtis also flagged Indian concern over the trajectory of US-China relations following Trump's recent summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. 'I think that the outcome of that summit probably has led Indians to believe that President Trump is much more interested in pursuing smooth ties with China, focusing on trade rather than strategic competition,' she said.

She added that suggestions that weapons sales to Taiwan could become a 'negotiating chip' had raised concern across the broader Indo-Pacific — a signal, analysts note, that US strategic commitments in the region are being read with fresh scepticism.

Only Trump Can Reset the Relationship

On the path forward, Curtis was unambiguous: 'Only President Trump can really reset the relationship. I think only when he shows that he prioritises the relationship and wants to see an improvement from what happened last year.'

She suggested that a Trump visit to India or a public reaffirmation of India's centrality to US Indo-Pacific strategy would be the most effective confidence-builders. 'The best thing is for President Trump to keep talking about the importance of India,' she said.

The Quad and the Missing Leaders' Summit

Curtis expressed concern about the absence of a Quad leaders' summit in the past year — the first such gap in five years. 'We missed having a leader-level meeting last year,' she said. 'This was the first time in five years that there was no leader-level meeting.' The Quad, comprising the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, has emerged as a central pillar of Indo-Pacific strategy amid growing concerns over China's regional influence. Ministerial engagement remains active, Curtis acknowledged, but doubts persist without a summit-level signal.

As trade tensions, immigration concerns, and shifting regional diplomacy continue to test the relationship, the coming months will test whether the second Trump administration recalibrates its approach to one of Washington's most strategically significant partnerships.