Paris: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged G7 nations to step up efforts to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks, while acknowledging that his appeal received no response from counterparts during talks in Paris.
“I raised it. I didn't get a response,” Rubio told reporters after two days of discussions with G7 foreign ministers on West Asia, Ukraine and other issues.
Rubio said the United States would continue defending shipping through the strategic waterway, where vessels remain vulnerable to drone attacks, and called on other countries to join the effort.
“We've actually encouraged our partners to join us in the effort of defending global shipping,” he said.
Describing the situation as a “kind of a Catch-22”, Rubio said some countries were willing to provide forces to protect shipping only after the risk of conflict had subsided.
“We think it's in the interest of the world to protect shipping because the US doesn't get any oil from there. These countries should step up. I think a couple are thinking about it,” he added.
The appeal came amid wider discussions over Washington's foreign policy priorities and its approach to major-power competition. Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Paris, Rubio said the United States would consistently put its national interests first, even when that meant disagreements with other countries, including China.
“The Chinese system is always going to act in the best interest of the Chinese system and the United States will always act in the best interest of the United States,” he said, adding that Washington worked for the American people rather than the global order or other countries.
Rubio's remarks on China came amid reports of an intelligence warning he had issued last spring concerning Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's alleged relationship with a Chinese operative, Alice Huang, also known as Huang Le.
According to The New York Times, Rubio flagged the relationship in a document circulated ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing in May. Trump recently brushed off questions about whether he had read the memo, saying it had not made much of an impact on him.
Trump also said he had questioned Huang about the allegations and believed his explanation that he had no idea the woman was a spy. Nvidia has initiated an internal inquiry, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation is examining the connection.
Alice Huang, who has no familial ties to Jensen Huang, previously served as managing director of Singapore-based Megaspeed, a company that maintained commercial partnerships with Nvidia. The allegations have raised national security concerns over potential intellectual property breaches involving the company's advanced AI processors.
Huang had previously lobbied Washington to relax export controls on Nvidia chip shipments to China. The Trump administration later authorised the delivery of the company's H200 chips to Beijing, although it remains unclear whether Chinese regulators will permit domestic firms to procure them in large volumes. China has rejected the espionage allegations, describing them as a smear campaign against Beijing.
Rubio also addressed the possibility of high-level trilateral consultations involving the United States, Russia and China, saying there was an intention to organise such a meeting, although its prospects remained uncertain.
“I think there's an intent to have that meeting. We're working to organise it and to frame it in the appropriate way,” he said, adding that Trump wanted the meeting to take place if possible.
Meanwhile, G7 foreign ministers also held discussions with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha as three-way talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States took place in the United Arab Emirates.
Sybiha met Rubio before joining the wider G7 discussions. According to the US State Department, the two discussed negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war, energy resilience and defence cooperation.
The larger meeting focused on defence and security assistance to Ukraine, an issue that has caused concern in Kyiv and European capitals following the Trump administration's reduction of US support. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are among the G7 members involved in those discussions.
(With agency inputs from ANI and AP via PTI)
