Days after the US signed a diesel purchase deal with Russia and announced a pause on the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said that the decision to waive Russia oil sanctions also took into account the India-US trade deal, which is close to conclusion. Rubio’s comments come ahead of his expected visit to Mumbai on October 20, where he will be holding talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.“We have had to waive sanctions over the past few months, looking at the global supplies, looking at global prices, and the impact it was having on other countries. I know diesel prices are high in the United States, but they’re really, really high in a bunch of other countries around the world, and then we have to manage all of these things. We’re trying to finalise a trade deal with India right now. We’re very close to doing that. So that’s one of the things we’ve taken into consideration..” Rubio said during a press conference in Uzbekistan.Also read | Trump blinks on Russian oil tariffs: What it means for India’s energyRubio said that every country has a complex set of factors that they have to take into account and that for some countries, it’s very difficult to acquire energy from alternative sources. “That’s not an excuse, but all that has to be balanced when you make foreign policy,” he said while responding to a question on the waiver and its impact on the Russia-Ukraine war.“The foreign policy of the United States, of course, takes into account what’s happening with the war between Russia and Ukraine, but it is not solely dominated by that. It hasn’t taken into account a variety of other factors, including our bilateral relationships with other countries, and what they realistically are capable of being able to do in terms of their own energy supplies. You also can’t unravel the economy of other countries because of one central issue. So that’s the complex part of having to balance all this,” Rubio said.With the threat of 100% US tariffs eased, India and the US could manage to sign a deal as both countries seem to have reached a broad alignment on other tariffs. Both the Section 301 investigation on New Delhi and the trade deal have resulted in a convergence between the countries. The major point of difference remained on the use of tariffs over India’s purchase of Russian oil.The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said that the government remains committed to ensuring the nation’s energy security “through diversified sourcing and based on evolving market dynamics”. It said in a statement that the proposed legislation’s implications for the India-US relationship as well as the global energy market have been flagged in discussions with US representatives.While India had already banned imports of goods using forced labour following the first US Section 301 investigation, India, along with other G20 countries, earlier this month released a joint statement committing to take action against structural overcapacity in certain geographies, particularly in sectors like automobile, electric vehicle, batteries, chemicals, foundational semiconductors and solar panels.Story continues below this adAs per the Council on Foreign Relations, diesel prices in the US averaged $6.18 a gallon as of October 12, up from $3.48 at the start of this year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and higher fuel costs have passed through to U.S. consumers.The latest Consumer Price Index showed that prices rose 0.6% in September, which is more than economists expected, bringing the annual inflation rate to 3.7%. Polls indicate that this could affect Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections, which have increasingly centred on cost-of-living concerns, as per the Council on Foreign Relations.Higher fuel prices have also become a challenge for Indian policymakers as retail inflation continues to inch upwards, rising to 5.54% in September, up from 4.83% in August, according to data from the National Statistics Office. Food inflation has surged to 7.74 per cent in September, up from 6 per cent in August, driven by items such as onions, ginger, garlic and lemon. The FAO food price index jumped 5.8 per cent, pointing towards an uptick in international prices.