US secretary of state Marco Rubio was in India 20–22 October. Not in Delhi, though. Evidently, meeting his counterpart, Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, or anyone in the Indian government was not his priority. His principal purpose was to visit Jamnagar to interact with Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries, whose oil refineries are headquartered there.

Contrary to protocol, Rubio’s visit was first announced by the US state department and only later confirmed, a bit sheepishly, by the Indian ministry of external affairs. In other words, the Trump administration bypassed the Modi government to set up this tête-à-tête with a private sector player to pursue its economic and strategic interest.

On arrival in Mumbai and standing on the steps of the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel at Apollo Bunder, Rubio said: “So you have a company (Reliance) with a massive amount of refining capability… I think I should go talk to them, especially when it involves nation states, oil from another country…”

The US has rather controversially controlled Venezuela’s oil industry since kidnapping its president Nicolas Maduro and renditioning him to New York in January this year. Reliance Industries has the capability to refine heavy grades of crude and is therefore potentially able to meet the US requirement to process Venezuelan crude in sizeable volumes.

After Mukesh Ambani and son Anant had met with Rubio, Reliance issued a statement that said: ‘The visit included wide-ranging discussions on the global energy landscape and opportunities for commercial partnerships across conventional and new energy.’

As per a Reuters report, ‘The Ambanis also shared their perspective on opportunities for collaboration with US companies.’ With the gradual increase in Venezuelan output during the course........

© National Herald