Rubio to Meet Jaishankar in Mumbai, Skipping Delhi
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, in Mumbai on Monday. The talks are planned without a stop in New Delhi. Al Jazeera
Rubio is arriving in India on Sunday from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where he met with five Central Asian states at the C5+1 summit. The U.S. Department of State said his travel to Samarkand, Mumbai and Jamnagar runs from October 17 to 22, 2026. The department announced the trip on October 13. U.S. Department of State
Rubio visited India as secretary of state from May 23 to 26, 2026. During that visit, he was in New Delhi in May for a meeting of foreign ministers of the Quad countries, the United States, India, Japan and Australia. Jaishankar met Rubio on May 24.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Mumbai talks would cover energy, trade and investment, defence, and critical and emerging technologies. In Jamnagar, in Gujarat, Rubio is scheduled to visit an oil refinery. The site is the Reliance Industries refinery described as the world's largest single-site refinery.
The decision to meet in Mumbai has prompted criticism in India and a response from officials. The U.S. ambassador to India said Washington expected Jaishankar to travel to meet Rubio. U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor confirmed that Rubio is skipping Delhi. Opposition leaders complained that the arrangements for the Mumbai visit were humiliating. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted "You might want to explain. Unless, you want me to" in connection with the visit. The Indian government has defended the decision to hold the Jaishankar-Rubio meeting in Mumbai. Hindustan Times
