US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit India for the second time in six months.
The US State Department said on Wednesday that energy and trade relations will be prominently discussed during this visit. Rubio will go to Mumbai and Jamnagar.
After visiting Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Rubio, who is visiting India from October 19 to 22, will not come to Delhi.
"Rubio will meet with senior government officials to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, exchange views on regional and global developments, and discuss possibilities for expanding energy cooperation," the US State Department said in a statement.
The statement said Rubio will also meet with business leaders to "promote investment opportunities."
Rubio's visit to Jamnagar is considered important because here is the world's largest refinery operated by Reliance Industries. It is being said that a big event will also be organized by the Ambani family to welcome him.
Jamnagar refinery is among the top three companies in the world refining Russian Ural crude oil.
Congress's jibe
Many people are also raising questions about Marco Rubio not coming to Delhi.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday questioned the government over the proposed meeting of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Indian government officials in Mumbai next week.
He claimed that Foreign Ministry officials were "confused" over the matter.
He also said that if Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to clarify on this matter, he can do so.
The Congress leader's comments came a day after US Ambassador Sergio Gore said Rubio would meet Indian government officials in Mumbai and "we hope that Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar will also be present there."
Actually, Rahul Gandhi has taken a jibe at the Indian government in one of his comments.
Posting on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi said, "Rubio has called his staff to Mumbai.
Modi ji, your officials in the Ministry of External Affairs are confused about what is happening.
If you want, you can clarify about this.
Of course, if you want me to clean up, that's a different matter."
The Congress leader's comments came a day after US Ambassador Sergio Gore said Rubio would meet Indian government officials in Mumbai and "we hope that Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar will also be present there."
Earlier, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said, "It is not surprising that the US Ambassador to India has given more information about the upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Mumbai."
"It is also not entirely unexpected to hear that Rubio will meet with Indian government officials in Mumbai. But what is quite extraordinary is that "We hope that Minister Dr. Jaishankar will also join us there along with others."
"Since when was the announcement of the Indian External Affairs Minister's meetings within the country handed over to someone other than the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs? India is also getting information about this meeting from the American Ambassador, just as it was learned for the first time from Rubio himself on the evening of May 10, 2025 that Operation Vermillion has been stopped. External Affairs Minister S. at the Ministry of External Affairs, Mumbai. Why are you silent about the meeting between Jaishankar and Rubio?"
India's Foreign Ministry has responded to questions related to Rubio not coming to Delhi.
Foreign Ministry's reply
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in his regular press conference on Friday, "Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Mumbai. He will also participate in the program organized on the 250th anniversary of America's independence.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that for the last decade, there has been a tradition of hosting foreign guests in different cities of India.
Referring to the previous meetings outside New Delhi, he cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meetings with the Prime Minister of Spain in Vadodara, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ahmedabad and the Prime Minister of Mauritius in Varanasi.
He also mentioned the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Goa and other diplomatic programs held in different parts of the country.
After the announcement by Sergio Gore about the meeting with Rubio and Jaishankar, questions are also being raised regarding protocol. Traditionally, such bilateral meetings are first announced by the host country.
What do the experts say?
But despite this answer of the Foreign Ministry, questions are being raised.
Well-known columnist Pratap Bhanu Mehta has written in his column for the leading English newspaper Indian Express, "Marco Rubio's decision to go to Jamnagar and Mumbai instead of Delhi may not have been taken with the intention of giving any symbolic message."
"But it is difficult to resist seeing this as a sign of the future of India-US relations. The US Secretary of State will connect with the biggest center of economic power in India and will pay tribute to the efficiency of the Ambani family, which is rightly appreciated.
“In other contexts this might have been a refreshing change,” he wrote. A relationship that is based on instrumentalist thinking and pragmatism, in which corporate capital is at the center rather than traditional politics and bargaining is given priority rather than solving the world's problems.
''But it is also a sign of India's declining status. India is no longer a participant in the making of the world order, nor is it a country whose political status is given priority. It has become merely a melange of corporate interests.
Former Foreign Secretary of India Kanwal Sibal agreed with the points written in Pratap Bhanu Mehta's column and wrote on X, "I completely agree with this article. Absolutely correct points have been raised in it.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta believes that India-US relations are becoming more transactional and driven by corporate interests, while the political, strategic and cultural foundations that previously underpinned the relationship are weakening.
Mehta has written, “Business cooperation cannot compensate for political tensions. Technological partnerships, investments and global expansion of Indian companies offer new opportunities, but bilateral relations cannot be made sustainable on these grounds alone. America's commitment to India's rise has weakened. Earlier there was a consensus between both the major parties of America that a strong India was in America's interest. Now it has been replaced by more transaction-based demands. Even after Donald Trump's departure, India may not get the same importance as before.
Mehta has written, "Shared concerns about China are not a guarantee of coordination between the two countries. India has not benefited from being projected as a balancing power against China. In America's relations with Pakistan and Bangladesh, American priorities are becoming more visible rather than India's regional concerns.
Zorawar Daulat Singh, who writes on geopolitics and international relations, while sharing information about Marco Rubio's visit to India on behalf of Gore at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, wrote on
He wrote, “What is even more dangerous is that America is setting a precedent in which non-governmental parties in India can be contacted directly. Irrespective of whether formal consent of government officials is taken for this or not.
Siddharth Varadarajan, senior journalist and founding editor of 'The Wire', wrote, "Can you imagine the Indian Foreign Minister going to Baton Rouge in the US state of Louisiana and demanding that the US Foreign Minister come there from Washington DC to meet him? And then get some junior officer to announce that the US Secretary of State is coming there to meet him?
On the controversy of Rubio not coming to Delhi, Tanvi Madan, senior fellow of the think tank Brookings Institution, has written on X, "It is difficult to understand why there is so much uproar over Rubio not going to Delhi. Especially when he had come to Delhi only a few months ago. This may be the first time in the history of US-India relations that both the Foreign Minister and the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command are making two visits to India within a year.
Regarding the growing distrust in India-US relations, Amitabh Mattoo, Dean and Professor, School of International Studies, Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University, has written in the Telegraph, "India should not assume that relations will automatically normalize after Trump leaves the presidency. "Economic nationalism, opposition to immigration, and skepticism about international commitments may be signs of a lasting change in American politics rather than the choice of any one president."
Mattu argues that India's response should not be based on emotional attachment, hurt self-respect or excessive inclination, but on the use of its strategic strength and influence i.e. 'leverage'. Mattu has written that India should negotiate in a practical manner, compromise where it suits its interests and remain firm on its stand where necessary. Also, without breaking ties with America, it should strengthen its relations with the countries of Europe, Gulf countries, East Asia and the Global South.
