Jaishankar to meet Rubio, UAE Foreign Minister, in back-to-back separate visits in Mumbai next week

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will host his counterparts from the UAE and the U.S. in Mumbai in two separate visits on October 19 and 20, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Friday (October 16, 2026). The meetings will discuss India’s bilateral relations with the two strategic partners, as well as regional issues and ongoing conflicts in West Asia. Mr. Rubio’s visit, which was announced by the U.S. on Tuesday, will come just after the deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to decide on imposing tariffs as sanctions for the purchase of Russian oil by countries, including India.

Mr. Jaishankar will hold meetings with UAE Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan on October 19, just four days after meeting him in Abu Dhabi. On October 20, he will stay on in Mumbai for the visit of Mr. Rubio and attend celebrations of the 250th anniversary of American Independence with him. This is the second time Mr. Jaishankar will be the guest of honour at U.S. Embassy events for the 250th anniversary, after he attended a celebration in New Delhi in May.

Defending Mr. Jaishankar over the Opposition’s criticism that he had been “summoned” by Mr. Rubio, who will not visit New Delhi during this trip, the MEA said that it was common “practice” to host leaders in the country’s financial capital and other cities.

“It is the practice over the last decade to host foreign dignitaries from time to time in various cities of India,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, citing Mr. Jaishankar having hosted the Foreign Minister of Botswana in Gujarat’s Kevadia, and hosting multilateral events like the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meet and Heart of Asia conference in other cities in the past.

High-level engagement

“The visit will provide an opportunity to sustain the high-level engagement between the two countries and advance our shared priorities,” he added, referring to energy, trade and investment, defence, critical and emerging technologies as “key areas” of cooperation.

However, Mr. Jaiswal did not directly respond to a question about U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor’s comments on the visit that were quoted by Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s description. On Thursday (October 15, 2026) while speaking at the Bloomberg media event, Mr. Gor had said that while the U.S. Secretary of State is in Mumbai for what is largely a “business-focused” trip, Mr. Rubio would be meeting with Government of India officials.

“We expect that Minister Dr. Jaishankar will be joining us there along with other individuals here from Delhi who will be making the trip up there to see [Mr. Rubio],” the diplomat had said.

The Congress party had questioned why the U.S. government and the Ambassador, and not the MEA were divulging details of an upcoming visit that had yet to be announced by the government. On Friday, Mr. Gandhi joined the criticism by likening Ambassador Gor’s comments to saying that Mr. Rubio had “summoned his employee to Mumbai” and sought clarification from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

‘Private visit’ to Jamnagar

Mr. Rubio, who will arrive in Mumbai on Vijayadasami, straight from a visit to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is expected to spend Tuesday at the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai and attend business events, the bilateral meeting with Mr. Jaishankar and the U.S. Independence Day function at the Ambani-owned Jio World Centre. On Wednesday, Mr. Rubio will travel with his wife Jeanette to Jamnagar, Gujarat, to see the Reliance energy refinery and the Vantara animal facility, hosted by the Ambani family that officials termed a “private visit” by the Secretary of State, who is widely expected to run a U.S. presidential campaign in 2028.

The announcement of the visit of UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah was unexpected and previously unannounced. According to the MEA spokesperson, he and Mr. Jaishankar will meet on October 19 and discuss India-UAE initiatives in the areas of “energy, trade and investments, fintech, defence and connectivity”. However, officials declined to comment on the reason for the visit so soon after Mr. Jaishankar’s visit to the UAE from October 14 to 16. During the visit to Abu Dhabi and Ras-Al-Khaimah, Mr. Jaishankar met with his counterpart, and both leaders also spoke in the same session at the ‘Raisina Dialogue’ event held there, organised by the MEA and the Observer Research Foundation.