WASHINGTON, DC – A political storm has erupted in India after US Ambassador Sergio Gor indicated that External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was expected to travel to Mumbai to meet visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, prompting opposition leaders to accuse Washington of treating India’s top diplomat as a subordinate.
Rubio, who arrives in India from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is scheduled to hold talks with Jaishankar in Mumbai on October 19 before travelling to Jamnagar, to visit Mukesh Ambani’s oil refinery. His decision to bypass New Delhi, the national capital, has added to the controversy amid already strained bilateral relations.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in New Delhi on October 15, Gor said Washington “expected” Jaishankar and other senior officials to travel from the capital to Mumbai for the meeting. The remarks triggered criticism from the opposition Congress party.
Jairam Ramesh, a Congress general secretary, described the ambassador’s statement as extraordinary, while Rahul Gandhi, the opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, wrote on October 16 that Rubio had “summoned his employee to Mumbai.”
The diplomatic row comes against a backdrop of tensions over trade, tariffs and India’s continued purchases of Russian oil. Relations have also been complicated by Washington’s engagement with Pakistan and the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Another source of friction emerged last week when the US Labor Department suspended eight companies, including Indian technology giants Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCL, from a labor certification program used by employers seeking green cards for foreign workers.
Rubio’s visit to Jamnagar carries particular economic and strategic significance. The Reliance Industries facility is the world’s largest single-site oil refinery, with the capacity to process approximately 1.4 million barrels of crude oil daily. It is a major buyer of Venezuelan crude and has also processed substantial volumes of Russian oil.
Washington’s interest in the refinery reflects its efforts to encourage India to purchase more Venezuelan crude. In an interview with NDTV, Gor suggested the facility could also become an important source of diesel for the US market.
Trump is also particularly interested in fuel prices before the midterm elections.
Reliance is separately associated with plans for a new refinery in Texas, which Trump valued at $300 billion when announcing the project in March. As DW News has reported, the investment’s eventual scale and terms remain important questions.
@India-West News Desk
