Rubio lands in India amid trade, visa strains and China briefing

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in India on Saturday for a four-day visit covering Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur and New Delhi. The South China Morning Post reports the trip is expected to focus on damage control, including briefing New Delhi on President Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month, a meeting from which India was left out. Unlike Japan’s prime minister, who received a direct call from Trump after the summit, India had to parse the shift from the Biden administration’s adversarial stance toward China.

On Sunday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar flagged India’s concerns over US visa and immigration policy changes. PTI reports Rubio acknowledged there could be “some bumps” and “friction points” during the transition, but said the reforms are not targeted at India. The US had issued a directive requiring green card applicants to return to their home countries, though it later moderated the stance. Jaishankar stressed that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted, as it is vital to business and technology cooperation.

Ties have been strained over the past year by US tariffs and Trump’s claims that he resolved the India-Pakistan military clashes last May, a claim New Delhi firmly denies. The visit comes five weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s trip to Washington to stabilise the relationship.