KOLKATA — United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio paid a visit to Saint Teresa's Mother House and a children's home in Kolkata, marking the first time in fourteen years that America's chief diplomat has travelled to the West Bengal capital.
The visit holds symbolic significance as Rubio toured institutions associated with Mother Teresa, the Albanian-born Catholic nun who dedicated her life to serving the destitute and dying in Kolkata's slums. The Mother House, located in the city's central district, serves as the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious congregation founded by Mother Teresa in 1950. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who passed away in 1997, was canonised as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2016.
According to reports, Rubio's engagement with these humanitarian institutions underscores the people-to-people connections between India and the United States, beyond traditional diplomatic and strategic discussions. The extended absence of high-ranking American diplomatic visits to Kolkata, once the capital of British India and still a major metropolitan centre, reflects shifting geopolitical priorities toward New Delhi and other urban centres.
The Secretary of State's India itinerary comes amid strengthening defence and economic cooperation between Washington and New Delhi, particularly through frameworks like the Quad alliance involving Australia and Japan.