Marco Rubio’s India visit: Energy, trade, tech on table at meeting with Jaishankar today

His meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon is being seen as an attempt to repair ties. Indian officials said the two sides are expected to discuss “energy, trade and investment, defence, critical and emerging technologies”.

The choice of venue is being seen as an outreach to India’s business elite, which is based in Mumbai. Returning to India after less than five months, Rubio will not be going to Delhi. He will, instead, head to Jamnagar on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Rubio will land in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon around 2.15 pm, and will meet Jaishankar around 4 pm. He will also pay tribute to the 26/11 memorial at Taj Palace hotel and attend the US @250 event.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Monday. (AP Photo)

The visit to Jamnagar, the seat of Reliance’s refinery, is significant since US billionaire Elon Musk, a strong partner of US President Donald Trump’s administration, had alleged that the launch of his satellite communications company, Starlink, was being delayed in India due to “certain oligarchs… to maintain their monopolistic chokehold“. “Is Ambani the real boss of India,” Musk had said in a post on X.

Sources said Rubio is expected to allay the concerns of India’s business community on the proposed trade deal between the two sides, and underline that there is enough space for both American and Indian businesses to tap the potential of the Indian market.

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In this context, the energy needs of India’s growing middle class is a case in point — where US energy supply can supplement the Russian and Gulf supplies to meet the high-energy demands in the Indian market, sources said.

The two sides are also expected to talk about the technological partnership between the two countries, and the importance of the resilience of supply chains — at a time when China is once again restricting critical technologies.

On October 16-18, China’s Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly published a draft proposal to add 40 technologies to its list of prohibited or restricted export items. This included artificial intelligence, solar manufacturing and biomedicine which targets cell and gene therapy technology platforms.

According to sources, the two sides will also discuss efforts to increase defence sales and co-production, mainly in the air and sea domains where the US has significant technological advantages. “The two ministers will discuss the possibility of technology transfer, which has been a major ask from the Indian side. Also, the two sides are looking at how the Make-in-India programme can be incorporated into India’s defence purchases from America,” sources said.

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The Rubio-Jaishankar bilateral is also expected to discuss the issue of mobility restrictions that have cast some shadow on the India-US relationship. The Indian side is expected to make the point about how the Indian business and skilled professionals have contributed to the US economy.

Rubio last visited Delhi in May this year, when he attended the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting. This time, the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting, which was being planned in Australia after the India leg, has been cancelled.