Rubio Begins Uzbekistan and India Trip as Critics Question His Travel Choices

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has left Washington for Uzbekistan and later India, his 31st trip abroad in the job. According to ABC News, which carried an Associated Press report, the tour comes amid criticism that he is favoring politically safer destinations over the administration's hardest foreign policy problems.

The trip is meant to strengthen U.S. economic and security ties with Central and South Asia. But it has only loose connections to the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war, the two issues that dominate the Trump administration's foreign policy agenda, the report said.

What Rubio says the trip is for

Speaking to reporters Saturday before departing, Rubio defended the choice of destinations. He said he picked a time when the Central Asian leaders could meet. He also said strategic visits tend to lose out because diplomats are usually pulled toward crises or conferences, even though there are countries the U.S. wants to build relationships with.

Rubio holds two roles, chief diplomat and national security adviser, and has brushed aside suggestions that he avoids difficult issues to limit the risk of failure and political damage, according to the report.

What critics and the State Department argue

Ivo Daalder, who was U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama, wrote a lengthy critique of the travel schedule. He said none of the places on the itinerary is where American foreign policy is being made. “The trip fits a pattern,” he said, adding that Rubio has largely stayed away from the capitals, crises and negotiations that define the office twenty months into the job.

Daalder suggested two possible explanations: that Rubio has too much on his plate, or that he has calculated his future is best served by staying clear of policies likely to end badly. He named Iran, Gaza, Ukraine and China as candidates.

The State Department rejected that framing in an emailed reply to the AP. It said Rubio's job is to help the president develop and carry out a strategy, not to build a public profile around every challenge, and that much consequential diplomacy happens out of public view. It said the conflicts involving Iran, Gaza and Russia-Ukraine each demand serious attention but cannot be handled in isolation from the president's wider national security goals.

The department also said Rubio is directly involved and acts as a trusted adviser. It added that he is not the White House press secretary and that his job is not to be in the press around the clock. His schedule, it said, follows the president's priorities rather than a wish to favor some regions over others.

Where Rubio has focused instead

According to the report, Rubio takes part in behind-the-scenes talks on Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Russia-Ukraine and China, but he is not the public face of any of them. Special envoys including Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Tom Barrack have led on those matters.

Rubio has concentrated on Latin America, especially Venezuela and Cuba, and on building ties with conservative leaders friendly to Trump. He has also worked to reassure NATO allies uneasy about the administration's intentions toward Europe, particularly in the Arctic.

This month, before Uzbekistan and India, he visited Iceland, Greece and Portugal. Before that he went to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. His aides say he plays a key role in interagency talks on all national security matters.

Why it matters: who is steering the biggest files

The debate is about who is accountable for the most consequential U.S. decisions. On Iran, Gaza, Lebanon, Russia-Ukraine and China, the most visible negotiating roles belong to presidential envoys rather than the secretary of state. Critics say that leaves the top diplomat distant from outcomes that could go badly. The State Department says it is a normal division of labor and that Rubio remains deeply involved.

For readers, the practical stakes are tied to those files. The administration's handling of the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war is where, by the report's account, its main foreign policy dilemmas lie. The Central Asia and India visit, by contrast, centers on economic and security partnerships.

Not the first secretary to delegate

The report notes that handing off time-consuming challenges is not new. When Hillary Clinton was secretary of state in Obama's first term, she assigned former Sen. George Mitchell to the Israeli-Palestinian file and veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke to the Afghanistan-Pakistan portfolio.

The AP also noted that both Clinton and Rubio ran for their parties' presidential nominations before becoming secretary of state, and that both had political ambitions beyond diplomacy. Rubio bristles at questions about his political future and has declined to discuss speculation about a rivalry with Vice President JD Vance over who might succeed Trump as leader of the Make America Great Again movement.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ABC News