Marco Rubio begins 4-day India visit today, Kolkata first stop

Key points

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive in India on Saturday on a four-day diplomatic tour, with Kolkata marking the first leg of his visit that carries considerable political and historical resonance.
• Rubio's visit to the eastern metropolis will be the first by a US Secretary of State in 14 years and comes weeks after the BJP formed the government in West Bengal following the recent assembly elections.
• Read Full Story Rubio will become the first US Secretary of State to set foot in Kolkata since Hillary Clinton visited the city in May 2012. During that high-profile visit, Clinton met then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the historic Writers' Buildings in a formal engagement that extended beyond an hour.
• Notably, Banerjee's administration too had only recently come to power after ending the Left Front's uninterrupted 34-year rule in Bengal.
• According to sources in the US Consulate, Rubio...