US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in India on Saturday for his first official visit, as both countries work to recalibrate the bilateral ties that have faced headwinds since mid-last year. His visit to New Delhi drew attention online after Iran took a swipe at him on X, using a “sabhyata” remark in response to his arrival.
“Thoda seekh lo yaar… “sabhyata ka crash course” free mein mil jayega!” Iran’s Mumbai consulate wrote in post on X, quoting Rubio’s post on his India arrival.
‘Sabhyata’ is a Hindi word that means civility, culture or civilisation.
The exact intent behind Iran’s consulate’s brief social media remark remains unclear, though it is being interpreted as a possible reference to comments made by US President Donald Trump in early April, when he warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran refused a peace deal and failed to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!” Trump had written in a post on Truth Social.
Rubio meets PM Modi
Marco Rubio met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday. Rubio, accompanied by his wife Jeanette D. Rubio, arrived in the capital after a visit to Kolkata earlier in the day.
He had landed in Kolkata earlier on Saturday, marking the beginning of his four-day visit to India that will take him across multiple cities. The trip will conclude with a Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on May 26, and it is his first visit to India since assuming office.
In Kolkata, Rubio visited Mother House, the headquarters of Saint Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, before departing for the national capital.
Rubio will meet and hold wide-ranging talks with external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday, May 24. He is also scheduled to attend the US Embassy’s Independence Day celebrations.
He will travel to Agra and Jaipur on Monday before returning to Delhi on Tuesday morning for the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Discussions between S Jaishankar and Marco Rubio are expected to focus on strengthening India–US cooperation in areas such as energy, trade, investment, critical technologies, and people-to-people exchanges, according to people familiar with the matter.
India-US ties
The two sides are also likely to discuss the crisis in West Asia and its wider economic implications, particularly its impact on global energy supplies, according to sources.
The visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to India comes around five weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s three-day trip to Washington DC, which focused on restoring stability in bilateral relations following a period of strain and uncertainty.
India–US ties had seen a significant downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India and US President Donald Trump made controversial claims about his role in de-escalating military tensions between India and Pakistan last May.
