Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to begin a three-day India visit on Tuesday, with meetings in Mumbai and a later stop in Jamnagar, Gujarat. He is expected to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and engage with Indian officials and business leaders on energy, trade, investment, defence, critical technologies and regional issues, including the West Asia crisis.
More than 160 people were killed in the attacks, including six U.S. He is also expected to attend a reception marking the 250th anniversary of U.S.
The visit comes as New Delhi and Washington try to complete the first phase of a bilateral trade agreement. India says that phase is in legal drafting, but it wants preferential access and tariff treatment at least as favorable as those available to competitors such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia. The framework reached in February reduced the U.S.
Trade has remained tied to a dispute over India’s purchases of Russian oil. Rubio said before arriving that negotiations were close to completion and that the trade talks were among the factors considered when Washington decided on national-security waivers related to Russian energy.
The trip is his second visit to India this year, following meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jaishankar in May and participation in a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting.