Why Marco Rubio’s go to to Mumbai has ruffled feathers in India | International Trade News
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio is to go to India within the coming week, however he is not going to set foot within the capital, New Delhi.
Instead, on Monday, Rubio will maintain talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai, India’s monetary hub, after which go to an oil refinery in Jamnagar within the western state of Gujarat, in accordance with a press release from the US Department of State.
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His itinerary sparked a political storm after the US ambassador to India stated Washington anticipated Jaishankar to journey to fulfill Rubio, prompting opposition leaders to accuse the federal government of permitting India’s prime diplomat to be “summoned” on dwelling soil.
The spat comes as relations between the 2 nations are strained over commerce, tariffs and India’s purchases of Russian oil.
So why is Rubio avoiding New Delhi, and why has it prompted such upset? Here’s what it’s essential to know:
What is Rubio doing in India?
He plans to debate commerce, vitality and financial backing.
Rubio is arriving on Sunday from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the place he has been assembly with 5 Central Asian states on the C5+1 summit.
In India, he is because of meet senior officers to debate the US-India strategic partnership and vitality cooperation and maintain talks with enterprise leaders, the State Department stated.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal appeared to verify the agenda, stating on Friday that the Mumbai talks would cowl vitality, commerce and financial backing, defence, and important and rising applied sciences.
In Jamnagar, Rubio is to go to the international stage’s largest single-site refinery, operated by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, and attend a reception hosted by the Ambani household, in accordance with The Hindu newspaper.
Why isn’t Rubio going to New Delhi?
No official motive has been given.
Rubio was within the Indian capital in May for a gathering of overseas ministers of nations within the Quad, a bunch consisting of the US, India, Japan and Australia.
The State Department has framed his upcoming journey round vitality and financial backing, and the second cease on Rubio’s India go to, Jamnagar, is among the international stage’s most vital vitality hubs.
The go to additionally comes as gasoline costs chunk within the US earlier than subsequent month’s midterm elections.
Reliance, an vitality, retail and telecommunications conglomerate, additionally sits on the centre of Washington’s wider oil diplomacy.
Business Standard, an Indian monetary every day, stated the Jamnagar cease was important as a result of Reliance is the most important purchaser of Venezuelan crude oil apart from the US at a time when Washington has been urging India to purchase extra.
Since US forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January and took important management of the nation’s oil business, the US authorities has marketed Venezuelan oil to consumers overseas.
Reliance can be investing in a brand new refinery in Texas, the primary to be constructed within the US in 50 years, which Trump hailed as a $300bn deal when he introduced it in March, Business Standard reported.
What did the US ambassador say, and why has it prompted upset?
Speaking on the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Thursday, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor stated Rubio would meet Indian authorities officers in Mumbai, and Washington “anticipated” Jaishankar and others from New Delhi to journey there to see him.
Earlier within the week, nonetheless, Jaiswal had not confirmed the journey or defined why Rubio was skipping New Delhi, telling reporters the Indian authorities would announce it “on the applicable time”, The Hindu newspaper reported.
Jairam Ramesh, a basic secretary of the opposition Indian National Congress get together, wrote on X that the ambassador’s assertion was “fairly extraordinary”.
Rahul Gandhi, chief of the opposition in parliament’s decrease home, additionally took to X to remark, writing on Friday that Rubio had “summoned his worker to Mumbai”.
Congress MP Pawan Khera went additional.
“A overseas authorities summoning India’s External Affairs Minister on Indian soil is a brand new low, even by the Modi Government’s requirements,” he wrote on X, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Why are US-India relations strained?
Mainly due to Trump’s tariffs and Russian oil.
In August final 12 months after a spherical of commerce talks broke down, the US hit most Indian items with a 50 % tariff. Under a framework the 2 sides agreed in February, that charge fell to 18 %, nonetheless.
Since then, negotiations have stalled.
This month, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated the talks had “plateaued”, in accordance with The Hindu.
On Thursday, Trade Minister Piyush Goyal stated the “first tranche” of a deal was in its ultimate levels however India wouldn’t signal till its exporters had an edge over rivals equivalent to Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia, in accordance with the Reuters information company.
Other factors of friction have emerged.
Last week, US Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling introduced that his division was suspending eight corporations – together with the Indian IT giants Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL – from a labour certification scheme that may be a key step for employers looking for inexperienced playing cards for his or her overseas employees.
Sameer Lalwani, a senior fellow within the South Asia Program on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote this week that Indian public opinion of the US has hit a document low, citing US engagement with Pakistan and the US-Israel battle on Iran, which he stated had pushed India again in the direction of Russian oil.
Despite that, he argued, defence and expertise cooperation has quietly deepened, and bilateral commerce grew by nearly 12 % in 2025 to just about $240bn.
In his view, “perceptions of the political relationship have deteriorated quicker than its strategic foundations.”
A sanctions regulation had threatened to make issues worse.
Last month, Trump signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which may impose tariffs of as much as one hundred pc on items from the 5 largest importers of Russian oil or fuel.
India, one of many international stage’s largest consumers of Russian oil, had warned Washington that new tariffs may damage bilateral ties. Trump signed an government order looking for to waive the sanctions on Friday as he tries to ease excessive oil costs earlier than the November 3 US elections.
