After making his first official trip to India, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. On behalf of US President Donald Trump, Rubio invited Narendra Modi to visit the White House soon. In addition to attending a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in New Delhi, the senior US official is expected to have extensive discussions with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Before taking a plane to New Delhi, the US State Secretary visited the Mother House. It is the headquarters of Saint Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. He visited there after arriving in Kolkata earlier today.
The visit takes on significance in light of the two nations’ increasing strategic convergence and in advance of the QUAD foreign ministers’ summit. It is set for May 26th in New Delhi. Rubio is the first senior American official to visit the eastern city in 14 years. During the visit, he is anticipated to visit Agra and Jaipur in addition to Delhi.
What can we anticipate?
Reports according to persons acquainted with the situation who spoke to PTI. Jaishankar and Rubio’s discussions are likely to focus on ways to strengthen India-US cooperation in energy, trade, investment, key technology, and people-to-people exchanges.
According to them, the two parties are also expected to discuss the West Asia situation and its effects on the economy. More focus notably on oil supplies. Rubio’s journey to India comes more than 5 weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Washington DC. He stayed there for 3 days in the goal of strengthening relations following a period of tension and uncertainty.
Trade and tariff issues are probably going to be discussed
Discussions between the two sides are also anticipated to touch on high-level issues related to US tariffs on India. There are disagreements on some economic matters. However, the visit is seen as a high level diplomatic attempt to stabilize and strengthen bilateral relations.
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