Rubio meets Modi, renewing ties with India after US-China summit
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday 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 US 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. Modi, in a post on X, said he was “happy” to receive Rubio. “We discussed sustained progress in the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and issues related to regional and global peace and security,” he wrote. Modi affirmed that India and the US “will continue to work closely for the global good”. 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