India, Oct. 24 -- When US secretary of State and national security advisor Marco Rubio arrived in Mumbai, an accompanying journalist said it was "remarkable" and wondered why Rubio would travel again to India within a few months. This is not a question that gets asked when senior American cabinet members visit European or West Asian countries multiple times. But, perhaps, the puzzlement reflects a gap that's long existed between the DC establishment's sense of India's utility and that of US administrations. And Rubio's trip made evident that, despite frictions, the Donald Trump administration does see India as useful to some of its interests - even if its agenda and prioritisation is different from that of the Joe Biden era.

One of those...