Marco Rubio visits Mumbai, Jamnagar: Energy cooperation, trade talks planned — What's on the agenda?

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be on a five-day visit to India and Uzbekistan from Saturday, October 17 to Wednesday, October 22. During his visit, Rubio will travel to Mumbai and Jamnagar, India, and Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

The White House released his travel plan and schedule for his visit to both countries in a statement on Tuesday.

Why is Rubio’s visit important?

Marco Rubio will arrive in India after visiting Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It will be Rubio’s second official visit this year. He last traveled to the country in May when he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and attended the Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting.

Quick answers to key questions

•4 QUESTIONS

Rubio is scheduled to visit India from October 17 to 22 as part of a five-day tour of India and Uzbekistan. In India, he visits Bombay and Jamnagar; the exact date of his arrival in India has not been confirmed.

Rubio is expected to meet with senior Indian government officials to discuss strategic partnerships, regional and global issues and prospects for greater energy cooperation. He will also meet business leaders to promote commercial investment and economic cooperation.

The visit comes as India and the US continue to negotiate a proposed trade deal amid changing US tariff policy. It is also an opportunity to discuss energy cooperation and wider strategic and economic ties.

The articles don’t say that a visit will complete the deal. Negotiations remain active, but a deal has not been concluded and changing circumstances and tariff policy have prompted further discussions.

The exact date of Rubio’s arrival in India is yet to be confirmed. There is no comment from the Indian side yet.

Rubio’s visit to India has significance in the wake of the stalled India-US trade deal, the framework of which was unveiled in February this year.

Since then, the dynamics of the US President’s tariffs have changed; the president extended the $100,000 H-1B visa fee, likely to impact several Indian applicants, and suspended the US Permanent Labor Certification Program, or PERM, for several technology giants and IT outsourcing companies, including Microsoft, Infosys, Cognizant, Tata, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Capgemini and Adobe. The program is an important step in the employment-based green card process for many foreign workers.

Why will Marco Rubio be in India this week?

According to a White House statement, Rubio will meet with senior administration officials “to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership, exchange views on regional and global dynamics, and discuss prospects for enhanced energy cooperation.”

Secretary Rubio will also meet with business leaders to promote opportunities for commercial investment and economic cooperation.

The White House press release came as Indian and US officials indicated earlier this month that long-standing efforts to finalize a bilateral trade deal had again stalled.

US-India trade agreement

Earlier in October, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the US and India had announced in February that they had reached a framework for an interim trade deal, but circumstances had changed and the pact would be finalized accordingly.

“US (trade pact) February I announce hua. Thodi paristhitiyan badli hain, usko abhi madde nazar rakhte hue final hoga. (It was announced in February. Some circumstances have changed; final decision will be taken keeping that in mind),” Goyal was quoted as saying by PTI while addressing members of the PHDCCI Chamber of Industry.

The minister did not elaborate on these circumstances, but the changing customs environment in the US has led to further negotiations on the first phase of the India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA).

India seeks lower tariffs on its goods than its competitors in US markets.

The latest flashpoint with Washington comes after some of India’s biggest IT services firms, like Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Inc., from a longstanding immigration initiative to crackdown on alleged abuses of the H-1B visa system for workers.

Vice President JD Vance urged American firms to hire more American workers and “stop importing a servant to do a job that an American worker would be happy to do.”

The Foreign Office described the comments as “deeply offensive”.

Piyush Goyal calls India-US relations ‘very good’

Despite tensions over the US-India trade deal, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said India’s relations with the US are “very good”.

“Obviously it’s already very good. I don’t see any problem as we speak,” Goyal said at the New Economy Forum in New Delhi on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. He was responding to a question about whether India’s relations with the US would improve under a different administration.

“The relationship that India has with the US is very substantial, it is very important for the world because they are two great democracies,” the minister said during the panel discussion.

Goyal tried to allay fears that relations were once again on a downward trajectory.

“The United States and India continue to have a very close relationship and we continue to work with them in many ways,” including in defense, working to ensure open supply chains in technology, goods and services.

He added: “It’s important to remember that we have, it’s not just trade, which is obviously our biggest trading partner and I think it will be for years to come. And overall I don’t see any problem with any deals with the United States as well.”

“It’s about trade, it’s about defense partnership, it’s our technology partnership, it’s our critical minerals partnership, it’s our people-to-people engagement,” Goyal said at the Bloomberg New Economy event, according to PTI.

What will Rubio do in Uzbekistan?

In Uzbekistan, Rubio will attend the C5+1 ministerial meeting “to highlight how strategic cooperation through this diplomatic platform promotes a more peaceful and prosperous future for the United States and the countries of Central Asia.”

In Uzbekistan, Rubio will also participate in bilateral meetings with senior officials from all of the C5 countries – Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Kyrgyz Republic.