But Rubio’s trip comes as President Donald Trump is shaking up traditional assumptions about US priorities.
Trump paid a state visit to China last week, where he hailed the reception he received from President Xi Jinping despite limited concrete announcements.
Trump in Beijing spoke of the US and China being a “G2” – a formulation that had fallen out of favour in recent years as US allies fear being shut out of Washington’s dealings with a rising China.
Rubio, who as a senator had championed close ties with India, told reporters on his plane that it would be the first visit in his life to the country.
He is joined on the trip by his wife Jeanette, with whom he will later visit the Taj Mahal, the world-famous monument to love, in Agra.
EYE ON ENERGY
In brief remarks on India at the start of the trip that also took him to Sweden, Rubio called the country a “great ally, great partner” and said the US would be looking to find ways to sell it more oil.
India’s fast-growing economy is reliant on energy imports and like many countries has been rattled by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which retaliated by choking off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil prices soaring.
India has historic ties with Iran but also a growing relationship with Israel, which Modi visited just days before the war.
But the conflict has also seen the re-emergence as a key US partner of India’s traditional adversary Pakistan, which has positioned itself as a mediator, with its powerful army chief flying Friday to Tehran.