Rubio tasked with America First push

The US Senate late on Monday (Tuesday morning IST) unanimously approved Marco Rubio as America's new Secretary of State, making the senator from Florida the first cabinet-rank official in the Donald Trump administration to be confirmed.

- Prashant Jha

WASHINGTON:

Rubio's confirmation came just as Trump issued an "America First" policy directive for the Secretary of State as a part of his initial flurry of executive orders.

Rubio's confirmation sets him up to participate in the Trump administration's first foreign policy engagement — a meeting of Quad foreign ministers at the State Department on Tuesday afternoon eastern time. External affairs minister S Jaishankar, who represented India at Trump's inauguration and had a front-row seat, was set to meet Rubio at an evening reception, and is participating in the Quad meeting.