Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 23 (ANI): Signalling a significant diplomatic push, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Kolkata on Saturday morning, marking the primary go to by a high American diplomat to the jap metropolis in 14 years.
The transient stopover serves because the opening leg of a high-stakes, four-day India tour geared toward repairing strained bilateral ties and reinforcing regional partnerships.
Shortly after touchdown, Rubio visited the Mother House in central Kolkata, the worldwide headquarters of Saint Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, and its adjoining Children’s Home, a go to carrying sturdy symbolic and cultural resonance. The final US Secretary of State to set foot in Kolkata was Hillary Clinton in May 2012.
Rubio’s first official go to to India marked a major step in increasing bilateral cooperation between Washington and New Delhi in areas corresponding to commerce, know-how, defence, vitality safety and Indo-Pacific technique.
The go to assumes significance amid rising strategic convergence between the 2 international locations and comes forward of the upcoming QUAD overseas ministers’ assembly scheduled to be held in New Delhi on May 26.
US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor was additionally current on the airport to obtain the US Secretary of State upon his arrival in Kolkata.
The announcement concerning Rubio’s arrival was made by US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor by a publish on X. He said that Rubio would later journey to New Delhi to carry discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and different senior Indian leaders.
In a publish on X, he mentioned, ‘Secretary Marco Rubio has landed in Kolkata. This is his first journey to India. Later at this time, we’ll name on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Trade, Technology, Defence, QUAD, and plenty of different gadgets to debate and advance over the subsequent few days!’
According to the US ambassador, the upcoming engagements will primarily deal with strengthening cooperation in key strategic sectors, together with defence partnerships, superior applied sciences, commerce ties and collaboration below the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) framework.
Setting a extremely collaborative stage for this key go to, Marco Rubio had earlier on Thursday introduced Washington’s keenness to considerably scale up vitality partnerships with India, declaring that the United States is ready to provide ‘as a lot vitality’ as New Delhi is prepared to purchase.
Interacting with the media in Miami earlier than he departed for Sweden and India, Rubio indicated that the US has already initiated high-level talks with Indian authorities to spice up vitality exports, a improvement propelled by American oil and gasoline manufacturing hitting historic highs.
The high American diplomat is slated to undertake this official tour of India from May 23 to 26, with a packed itinerary overlaying Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur, and New Delhi. The high-level engagements through the go to are anticipated to primarily centre round commerce dynamics, vitality safety, and defence cooperation.
To anchor this financial agenda, Rubio underscored that Washington goals to embed itself extra deeply into India’s diversified vitality matrix, while hinting at the potential for collaborative preparations involving Venezuelan crude provisions.
These remarks got here immediately in opposition to the backdrop of queries concerning the financial pressures India navigates attributable to unstable world gas pricing and maritime logistical vulnerabilities stemming from latest instabilities surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.
Characterising the connection between the 2 democracies as sturdy below these testing world situations, the US Secretary of State described India as a ‘nice accomplice’ and harassed the significance of strengthening bilateral ties throughout a number of sectors.Furthermore, Rubio affirmed his scheduled attendance on the forthcoming QUAD overseas ministers’ assembly, which will likely be hosted in New Delhi as a part of his diplomatic itinerary.
In a significant diplomatic deployment matching this regional focus, India is gearing as much as host the overseas ministers of the QUAD nations within the nationwide capital to deliberate on the evolving safety matrix of the Indo-Pacific and the escalating friction factors throughout West Asia. The high-level congregation of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue–bringing collectively India, the United States, Australia, and Japan–is locked in for May 26 below the chairmanship of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Official communications from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed that the strategic huddle will see the participation of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.
Alongside the core plurilateral talks, the visiting dignitaries are slated to name on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have interaction in structured, one-on-one bilateral classes with Jaishankar.
‘In conserving with the Quad imaginative and prescient for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, the ministers will construct on discussions held in Washington DC on July 1, 2025,’ the MEA mentioned.
The upcoming discussions are poised to deepen operational synergies among the many accomplice democracies, as New Delhi steers the grouping’s agenda because the rotational chair. (ANI)