Jaishankar hosts UAE's Abdullah bin Zayed in Mumbai today, with Rubio due on Tuesday

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spends the first half of the week in Mumbai, where he hosts the United Arab Emirates’ Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Monday and Tuesday before sitting down with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The choice of the financial capital over New Delhi has already caused a political row, but the agenda is heavy. Gulf security, energy supplies and the safety of Indians in the region will run through both sets of talks, and on Tuesday the city also hosts a celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

West Asia first

The UAE minister’s visit comes days after Jaishankar met him in Abu Dhabi at the Raisina Middle East forum. Since then, Houthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia have continued. On Sunday the Indian Embassy in Riyadh told Indian nationals to follow Saudi safety directives, shelter indoors and stay away from windows, after an attack on King Khalid International Airport on 10 October killed an Indian national.

Announcing the visit last week, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “They will naturally have a detailed exchange of views on the situation in West Asia.”

Rubio arrives with energy on the table

Rubio began his trip in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the C5+1 ministerial meeting with the five Central Asian states, the US State Department said. His India leg takes in Mumbai and Jamnagar in Gujarat, home to Reliance Industries’ refinery complex. He will not visit New Delhi.

“On October 20, the External Affairs Minister will hold talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” Jaiswal said. The State Department has said the visit is meant “to strengthen the US-India strategic partnership” and to “discuss prospects for enhanced energy cooperation”. A delegation of more than 200 business leaders is travelling with him. It is his second visit to India since May, when he attended the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi.

The talks come at an uneasy moment. India has told Washington of its concerns over the Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, which could allow tariffs on countries that keep buying Russian energy, and New Delhi has watched the US agree its own diesel purchases from Russia.

Rajnath in Dushanbe

Further north, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh represents India at the 25th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government, which opens in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on Monday. The Defence Ministry said the two-day meeting would focus on trade, investment, connectivity, innovation and cultural exchanges, and would take decisions on the organisation’s finances and institutional working.

The Mumbai row

Congress leaders accused the US of summoning India’s foreign minister to Mumbai. The MEA rejected the charge last week, listing several occasions on which foreign leaders were received outside the capital, including Spain’s Pedro Sanchez in Vadodara and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Ahmedabad.