NEW DELHI: Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday called India a natural partner and invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, turning the page at least rhetorically on friction despite newfound US warmth towards China.
One week after joining President Donald Trump on a state visit to Beijing, Rubio — visiting both Asian powers for the first time — flew to New Delhi and met Modi for more than an hour, inviting the premier to visit the White House soon.
“The world’s oldest democracy in the United States and the world’s largest democracy here in India are natural partners now and in the future,” said Rubio, sporting a tuxedo in the searing heat as he entered a gala dinner for business and political leaders at the US ambassador’s residence.
Modi said he discussed with Rubio issues related to regional and global peace and security. “India and the United States will continue to work closely for the global good,” he said in a social media post.
Cutting a ribbon earlier at a new US embassy building, Rubio said the US-India relationship lay “at the cornerstone of our approach to the Indo-Pacific”. Such glowing statements were for decades routine between the United States and India.
But Trump has shattered assumptions about US foreign policy and last year took his distance from India, whose leaders avoid the lavish, personal praise that the US president has come to expect from allies.
Trump last year imposed punishing tariffs on India, which were eventually eased, and India was barely mentioned in his administration’s national security strategy. Trump, despite limited concrete announcements in Beijing, spoke of the United States and China as a “G2” — a formulation resented by US allies who fear being shut out of Washington’s dealings with a rising China.
India has also been alarmed by Trump’s strident anti-immigrant rhetoric and his crackdown on visas used by tech professionals.
Starting with nuns
Rubio, a devout Catholic, began his four-day, four-city tour by touring the headquarters of Mother Teresa’s charity in the eastern city of Kolkata and praying over her tomb.
Wearing a yellow garland over his suit, Rubio, joined by his wife Jeanette, smiled before an assembly of nuns, all clad in the late humanitarian’s signature white and blue saris.
“Rubio spoke about aiding the homeless, terminally ill and those afflicted by leprosy,” Sister Marie Juan of Missionaries of Charity told reporters after his hour-and-a-half-long visit.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2026
