NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has conveyed its concerns to the United States about a new immigration order that could force a large number of Indian students to return home, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration issued a new rule this week that would bar foreign students from remaining in the United States if their universities are not holding in-person classes during the upcoming fall semester because of coronavirus.

“We have urged the U.S. side that we need to keep in mind the role that educational exchanges and people to people relations have played in the development of our relations,” Anurag Srivastava, spokesman at India’s foreign ministry told a news conference.