As US secretary of state Marco Rubio arrived in India on Saturday, Iran took a dig at him with a ‘sabhyata’ remark on X. Rubio arrived in New Delhi on Saturday for his first official visit to India as the two nations are looking to recalibrate the bilateral relations that have faced headwinds since mid-last year.
“Thoda seekh lo yaar… “sabhyata ka crash course” free mein mil jayega!” Iran’s Mumbai consulate wrote in post on X, quoting Rubio’s post on his India arrival. Track updates on Rubio’s India visit
Sabhyata is a Hindi word that means civility, culture or civilisation.
There remains ambiguity over Iran consulate’s one-liner remark, but it might have a reference to US President Donald Trump‘s remark that he made in early April when he threatened and said that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran does not agree to a peace deal and unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!” Trump had written in a post on Truth Social. He was condemned over the remark which was even dubbed as ‘genocidal’.
Rubio in India
Rubio will meet and hold wide-ranging talks with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, apart from his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attending a meeting of the Quad foreign ministers in New Delhi.
The US Secretary of State reached Kolkata this morning and visited the Mother House — the headquarters of Saint Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity — before flying to the national capital.
On Sunday, Rubio is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Jaishankar and attend the US Embassy’s Independence Day celebrations. The Secretary of State will travel to Agra and Jaipur on Monday before returning to Delhi on Tuesday morning for the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Ways to bolster India-US ties in energy, trade, investment, critical technology and people-to-people exchanges are likely to dominate the talks between Jaishankar and Rubio, people familiar with the matter said.
The two sides are also expected to deliberate on the West Asia crisis and its economic impact, including on energy supplies, they said.
Rubio’s trip to India comes over five weeks after Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri undertook a three-day visit to Washington DC that focused on stabilising the ties after a spell of uncertainty and strain.
The relations between the two countries witnessed a major downturn after Washington imposed punitive tariffs on India and President Donald Trump made controversial assertions regarding his role in de-escalating the India-Pakistan military clashes last May.
With inputs from agencies
