New Delhi: US secretary of state Marco Rubio will be in India for a four-day inaugural visit from Saturday, the US state department has confirmed.
Rubio’s itinerary will take him to Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur, and New Delhi, the state department has said.
His visit to Kolkata carries immense historical significance because the US Consulate in the city is the oldest American diplomatic mission in India and one of the oldest operating US consulates in the world, as reported by News18.
During his visit, the US secretary of state will meet senior Indian officials to deliberate on crucial matters regarding energy security, regional trade, tariffs, and defense cooperation.
Rubio will also join Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Australian foreign minister Penn
y Wong, and Japanese foreign minister Motegi Toshimitsu in New Delhi on May 26 for the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting.
His stop in Kolkata underscores the growing geopolitical importance of eastern and northeastern India in global trade and the broader Indo-Pacific strategy, foreign policy experts believe.
It will also mark the beginning of joint celebrations with the US Embassy in India commemorating 250 years of America.
US president George Washington, on November 19, 1792, nominated Benjamin Joy of Newbury Port as the first American Consul to Kolkata. With advice from secretary of state Thomas Jefferson, later the third US president, and Senate approval, Washington appointed Joy to the office on November 21, 1792.
Joy, however, reached Kolkata only in April 1794. He was never recognized as Consul by the British East India Company but was permitted to “reside here as a Commercial Agent subject to the Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction of this Country…”.
Benjamin Joy’s arrival was the beginning of a long official American relationship with Kolkata, despite this rather inauspicious beginning. It forged the US relationship with the rest of the country.