New Delhi, May 23: A formal dinner will be held today at Roosevelt House in the national capital in honor of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a four-day visit to India. The event will be hosted by Sergio Gore, the U.S. Ambassador to India.
According to sources, senior officials from the Indian government, prominent business figures, experts from the innovation sector, and strategic partners will attend. These attendees are shaping the next phase of U.S.-India collaboration.
This gathering will highlight the growing bilateral relations in areas such as trade, critical technology, security, and investment. The presence of leaders from various sectors indicates that the partnership between the two nations extends beyond government coordination. Entrepreneurs, institutions, and industry networks are now turning this collaboration into practical cooperation.
Roosevelt House, the official residence of the U.S. Ambassador in India, is located on a sprawling 28-acre estate. It was designated for American diplomatic use in the 1950s and is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who supported India’s independence.
The building was designed by renowned American architect Edward Durell Stone, who also designed the chancery building of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. Its notable features include a lattice structure made of hand-polished concrete blocks. The construction utilized stones from Dholpur, Agra, and Kota, along with Makrana marble.
The inauguration ceremony in January 1963 was attended by over 700 guests, including President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Vice President Zakir Husain, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
The first U.S. Ambassador to reside at Roosevelt House was John Kenneth Galbraith. A year before its opening, he gave Jacqueline Kennedy a tour of the embassy grounds, after which he commissioned Edward Durell Stone to design the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Over the years, Roosevelt House has hosted not only political leaders but also astronauts, artists, scientists, and writers. Notable visitors include President Trump, John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth, Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, artist M.F. Husain, and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
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