The Mumbai meeting between India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio became a focus of political criticism after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi challenged the venue.
At the NDTV World Summit on Oct. 22, Jaishankar answered the criticism with examples of past diplomacy outside the capital. NDTV reported that he recalled Indira Gandhi’s 1972 meeting with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Shimla and asked, “Mrs Gandhi went to Shimla to meet Bhutto. Was she summoned?” India’s official Simla Agreement is dated July 2, 1972, and bears signatures from both leaders.
NDTV also reported that Jaishankar pointed to a 2013 lunch hosted in Jaipur by former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid for Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) records Ashraf’s private visit to Jaipur and Ajmer on March 9, 2013.
The New Indian Express reported that Gandhi’s Oct. 16 post followed comments from U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor, who said Jaishankar was expected to join Rubio in Mumbai. In the post, Gandhi said Rubio had summoned “his employee” to the city and claimed Indian foreign ministry officials were confused.
Before the meeting, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had hosted foreign dignitaries outside New Delhi over the past decade, ThePrint reported in its account of a ministry briefing. ThePrint’s account said the MEA’s planned agenda covered bilateral ties, energy, trade, investment and defense. Jaishankar’s Oct. 20 post described the talks as covering regional issues and people-to-people ties, alongside cooperation on defense, technology, energy and trade.
The Associated Press (AP) linked difficulties in the trade negotiations to U.S. tariff disputes and India’s purchases of Russian oil. Rubio told reporters on Oct. 20 that negotiators had only a handful of items to resolve, AP reported. At the Oct. 22 summit, Jaishankar described the deal as being in its “last mile” and declined to identify the outstanding issues, NDTV reported.
