Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s four-day “make nice to India” trip resulted in few “deliverables,” as the diplomats say. The trip led off with a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where Rubio extended him a personal invitation from President Donald Trump to come meet with him in the United States. Indian reporters asked Rubio afterwards, did Modi accept, or say he was looking forward to such a visit? Well, said Rubio, “we’d love to have him come to Washington,” but “obviously anytime you have someone who’s as busy as he is—and he travels quite a bit, the Prime Minister does….”
Indian journalists peppered Rubio in his press conferences with questions on if and when U.S. tariffs on Indian goods would be lowered or lifted, and questions about when the threat to the visas of Indian professionals hired by U.S. companies under visa categories like the H1B program and others would be resolved. This was the question that most got under his skin, however:
Q: “There have been a lot of racist comments coming from United States against Indians, Indian Americans. This goes against the basic premise of India-U.S. relationship. So what’s your take on that?”
