Marco Rubio India visit: Jaishankar meeting to focus on long-awaited trade pact

All right, viewers, let's now shift focus to the big developments coming in from India. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Mumbai for a high-level three-day visit centering on bilateral talks with External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar. The discussions aim to advance the comprehensive global strategic partnership that exists between India and the U.S. They wish to tackle key trade negotiations in these talks and deepen cooperation across energy, defense, and critical and emerging technologies. Well, the high-stakes talks, they come as Washington and New Delhi signal significant progress towards finalizing a long-awaited bilateral trade agreement. Mind you, that has yet to be enforced. In Mumbai, Rubio is accompanied by a large business delegation. Beyond economics, the discussions are expected to cover regional developments as well, and that includes the situation in West Asia, the energy security issues and defense collaboration between India and the U.S. The Minister of India has been to the United States four times this year. This is the most populous country in the world. It's the largest democracy in the world. It's an important commercial partner and business partner of the United States. We also do a lot of defense cooperation. They're a key member of the Quad. We care a lot about it. We're very, very close. I would say we're about as close as you can be without having an executed agreement. I think there's a small number of items left to wrap up. So I think that will happen shortly, we're hoping, which it should, and hopefully have some good news to announce fairly soon and perhaps the leaders can sign it thereafter. So we feel very optimistic that we will have something in place here very soon. India is a refining superpower. I mean, they have the ability to do that. They have companies that know how to do that. They also, by the way, have pre-existing oil concessions in Venezuela that can produce more themselves. So all these are positive things. Now, alongside his talks with the external affairs minister of India, Rubio visited the 26-11 memorial at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai. Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, was present as well. Rubio is scheduled to attend the Freedom 250 reception at the Jio World Convention Centre. Later, Rubio will travel to Jamnagar in Gujarat, a crucial global energy hub, to further discuss energy cooperation and security. All right, let me cut across to my colleague joining me on the broadcast, our correspondent, Disha Yadav. Disha, we've been waiting for these developments to come in. Lots on the table to be discussed. I'll just toss it over to you. Give us the latest. Absolutely. So it was indeed a very diplomatic key engagement day in the afternoon today here in India's financial capital city, Mumbai. And behind me, you can see iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. This is where exactly Marco Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, had diplomatic key engagement and meetings with the external affairs minister, S. Jai Shankar. And just a short while ago, we've seen Marco Rubio left Taj Mahal Palace and he is now en route to Jio World Centre, which is in Bandra, suburbs of Mumbai, to attend the 250 years of American independence event. So that also will be attended by a lot of big leaders and key diplomatic people from the industry. Now what we understand that before really engaging with the key discussions here at the Taj Mahal Palace, Rubio began his visit by taking a small walk and tour right here at the Gateway of India, which is another iconic location given its culture and history significance behind that. and right after that he went straight to Taj Mahal Palace. You can see the big convoy that is going behind Marco Rubio's car because now the entire convoy is headed towards Bandra's Jio to where another big event will be taking place after 6.30 pm where it will be attended by all the big leaders as well. After reaching Taj Mahal Palace, he straight away went to pay tribute to the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack victims. And after that, he met S. Jaishankar, where they spoke about defense, where they spoke about energy, where they spoke about trade, security, and how to further deepen the ties between India and U.S. So all of this is something which was discussed. However, the highlights and the key details of the meeting are yet to come. But the meeting just got over about 10 minutes ago and we saw Marco Rubio leaving for another event which is scheduled to take place later during the day. So definitely a very significant meeting took place between S. Jaishankar and Marco Rubio, who is the U.S. Secretary of State, on various factors. Because remember, India and U.S. relations also had hit rock bottom due to various issues, American tariffs, India's continued purchase of Russian oil. And whether the proposed India-U.S. trade agreement was on the cards, whether that was discussed, how further that agreement could really benefit both the countries per se, all of that details we will come to know in a short while from now. We'll come back to you. Of course, right behind Disha, we saw the convoy moving towards Jio World. Lots that's taking place. That meeting has just taken place minutes ago, right behind where Disha is located at this point in the hotel that we see. And that's where the meeting took place. We'll bring you the latest as the developments come in. Disha Yadav joining me on the broadcast.