Questions raised within opposition circles about External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's forthcoming visit to Mumbai — where he is scheduled to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio — drew a response from authorities on Friday, who pointed to a documented practice, spanning the last decade, of hosting visiting foreign officials at locations outside New Delhi.
Prior to the visit by Rubio, Congress party leaders took issue with the government after remarks at a public event by US Ambassador Sergio Gor indicated that Washington anticipated Jaishankar's presence in Mumbai for the occasion. Mumbai and Jamnagar are the two stops on Rubio's planned itinerary, with the capital left off the schedule entirely.
Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh, both of the Congress party, raised questions about why the US envoy had publicised the External Affairs Minister's schedule, with Gandhi characterising the situation as the American official calling his subordinate to Mumbai.
Responding to the opposition's characterisation of External Affairs Minister Jaishankar's travel as a US-directed summons, Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal pointed out that the minister's Mumbai itinerary for October 19 and 20 had already been arranged around receiving UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with the engagement involving Rubio slotted in as a subsequent addition.
Jaiswal pointed to the External Affairs Minister's scheduled attendance at a Mumbai event marking 250 years of American independence — where he will serve as guest of honour — before noting that receiving foreign dignitaries outside New Delhi had become standard practice over roughly the past ten years. He cited examples including Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meetings with his Spanish counterpart in Baroda, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ahmedabad, and the Mauritius Prime Minister in Varanasi, alongside the External Affairs Minister's engagements with Shanghai Cooperation Organisation foreign ministers in Goa, the Botswana Foreign Minister at Kevadia in Gujarat, and delegates at the Heart of Asia conference held in Amritsar.
The UAE Deputy PM's visit, Jaiswal noted, opens a channel for both sides to take stock of where their comprehensive strategic partnership stands, with delegations from each country set to advance joint work spanning energy, trade, investment, fintech, defence, and connectivity. The agenda for their meeting is set to cover conditions across West Asia, alongside broader questions of global governance and multilateral cooperation.
The trip by Rubio opens a path for both governments to take stock of their relationship and map out how to deepen a partnership spanning defence, energy, trade and investment, and emerging technologies, with a ministry spokesperson noting that other shared interests would also feature in the agenda. On the agenda for the meeting are regional and global affairs, with the visit serving as a platform to keep high-level contact between the two nations active and move forward on areas of mutual interest.
Rubio travelled to India that May for a Quad foreign ministers' meeting, and while there he hosted a reception in New Delhi marking the 250th anniversary of US independence.
People familiar with the plans say Rubio's itinerary includes a stop in Jamnagar, where he is set to tour facilities operated by Reliance — the energy conglomerate that has acquired an ownership stake in the America First Refining project, a Texas-based oil refinery that, if completed, would stand as the first large-scale installation of its kind built on domestic soil in approximately five decades. Reliance ranks among the notable buyers of Venezuelan energy, a trade that falls under the regulatory authority of Washington.
