Mumbai: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Mumbai and Jamnagar during his India trip in October. He is reportedly scheduled to meet senior
Indian government officials to strengthen bilateral strategic ties and explore opportunities for greater energy cooperation. Rubio will visit India and Uzbekistan between October 17 and 22. According to a media note issued by the US Department of State on Tuesday (local time), Rubio will visit Samarkand in Uzbekistan before travelling to Mumbai and Jamnagar in India. The trip will be his second official visit to India this year. The upcoming visit comes as US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, on Monday, highlighted growing cooperation between New Delhi and Washington across defence, information technology, and healthcare, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump had spoken recently. Rubio's visit to Jamnagar is crucial as the city is home to Reliance's refinery, the world's largest single-site facility, with a capacity to process 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day. In March, President Donald Trump announced that the US would build its first refinery in 50 years with investment from Reliance Industries. The refinery will come up in Brownsville, Texas, at a cost of USD 300 billion, Trump said. Before arriving in India, Rubio will participate in the C5+1 Ministerial in Uzbekistan, where he will highlight how strategic cooperation through the diplomatic platform promotes "a more peaceful and prosperous future for the United States and the countries of Central Asia". He will also hold bilateral engagements with senior officials from the five Central Asian countries participating in the platform: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. The visit to Uzbekistan will also include a US commercial delegation comprising more than 200 business leaders, which the State Department said would help usher in "a new era of strengthened commercial cooperation for the United States and Central Asia". (With inputs from agencies)
