US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s surprise visit to Kolkata

POBNEWS24, Desk report Dhaka May 23, 2026 : US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a surprise visit to Kolkata. He and his wife set foot in the capital of West Bengal on Saturday morning. This is the first visit to Kolkata by a US Secretary of State in 14 years.
Rubio landed at Kolkata International Airport at 7:20 am local time. From there, he went by road to the Missionaries of Charity or Mother Teresa House in Kolkata.
At that time, he was welcomed by the nuns of the charity. After spending an hour there, he went to the Nirmala Shishu Bhavan, which works with orphaned children and adolescents, next door. There, he spoke to the children and handed over some gifts to them.
Later, the US Secretary of State visited Kolkata’s historic Victoria Memorial. From there, he went back to the airport and left for Delhi. At that time, he was accompanied by US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore.
The last time the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Kolkata was in May 2012. At that time, she met the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee. However, Rubio did not meet the current Chief Minister of West Bengal, Subhendu Adhikari, during this visit.
It is learnt that Marco Rubio will be in India on a four-day diplomatic visit from May 23 to May 26. In addition to a bilateral meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Delhi, he will also attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quad countries (India, the US, Japan and Australia).
As part of his visit to India, the US Secretary of State is also scheduled to visit the tourist attractions of several other important cities including Agra and Jaipur.