NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday (May 23) invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, reaffirming the importance of a relationship that has come under growing strain, a week after the United States held a warm summit with China.
After joining President Donald Trump in Beijing a week ago, Rubio – visiting both Asian powers for the first time – flew to New Delhi and saw Modi for more than an hour, inviting the premier to visit the White House soon.
Rubio “underscored the strategic importance of the US-India partnership, rooted in our shared democratic, profound economic and commercial opportunity and the strong personal ties” between Modi and Trump, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said, glossing over last year’s friction between the world’s two largest democracies.
Trump has shaken up core assumptions on US foreign policy, including a commitment to building a stronger relationship with India, which was barely mentioned in his administration’s national security strategy released last year.
Visiting China, Trump hailed the reception he received from President Xi Jinping, despite limited concrete announcements.
Trump also spoke of the United States and China being a “G2” – a formulation that had fallen out of favour in recent years as US allies fear being shut out of Washington’s dealings with a rising China.
STARTING WITH NUNS
Rubio, a devout Catholic, began his four-day, four-city tour by touring the headquarters of Mother Teresa’s charity in the eastern city of Kolkata and praying over her tomb.
Wearing a yellow garland over his suit, Rubio, joined by his wife Jeanette, smiled before an assembly of nuns, all clad in the late humanitarian’s signature white and blue saris.
“Rubio spoke about aiding the homeless, terminally ill and those afflicted by leprosy,” Sister Marie Juan of Missionaries of Charity told reporters after his hour-and-a-half-long visit.
“He was happy to pray and we were also happy to have him,” she said.
While Trump rarely raises human rights, some elements of his base have expressed concerns over the treatment of Christians under the Hindu nationalist Modi, making Rubio’s choice of first stop highly symbolic.
Rights groups say there has been a rise in attacks on minority Christians across India, including vandalism of churches, since Modi came to power in 2014.
The government rejects the claims as exaggerated and politically motivated.
