US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will arrive in India on Sunday for high-level meetings in Mumbai and Gujarat, bypassing the capital New Delhi in an itinerary that has triggered a political dispute in the host nation.
Rubio is scheduled to meet Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday in Mumbai before travelling to Jamnagar in Gujarat to tour an oil refinery operated by Reliance Industries and attend a reception hosted by the Ambani family, according to US and Indian official statements.
The diplomatic arrangements drew sharp criticism from Indian opposition figures after US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor stated that Washington expected Jaishankar to travel to Mumbai from New Delhi. Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition in India's lower house of parliament, said: "A foreign government summoning India’s External Affairs Minister on Indian soil is a new low, even by the Modi Government’s standards."
Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that the Mumbai discussions would cover energy, trade and investment, defence, and critical and emerging technologies. Rubio is arriving from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with the US State Department framing the visit around energy cooperation and commercial investment.
The stop in Jamnagar highlights broader oil diplomacy, as Reliance Industries is the largest non-US buyer of Venezuelan crude oil following Washington's seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. The Indian conglomerate is also investing in a $300bn refinery in Texas.
The trip takes place amid strained bilateral relations over trade disputes and India's purchases of Russian energy. While two-way trade reached nearly $240bn in 2025, Washington imposed tariffs on Indian goods last year before lowering them to 18 percent, and recently suspended several major Indian technology firms from a key green-card labour certification programme.
