Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in India to try to mend fences with the Narendra Modi government, and to prep for a meeting of AUKUS Foreign Ministers in New Delhi. “Rubio is spending a few days in India ahead of a meeting of foreign ministers from the informal Quad security forum comprising the US, Japan, Australia and India in New Delhi on May 26,” Al Jazeera reports.
According to the official agenda released by the State Department, Rubio will discuss energy security, trade and defense cooperation with senior Indian officials.
A more frank reading was provided by Sadanand Dhume, senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), who wrote that Rubio is going to India in “repair” mode, after major conflicts with the U.S. over tariffs, Trump’s lies about the India-Pakistan military skirmish, oil sanctions, etc.