New Delhi: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday (May 21, 2026) said Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez would travel to India “next week”, disclosing a visit that neither New Delhi nor Caracas had announced.The first International Big Cat Alliance summit that Rodriguez was expected to attend has since been postponed along with the India-Africa Forum Summit, both due to the Ebola outbreak in Africa, casting doubt on whether the visit will go ahead.Rubio made the remarks at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before departing on a trip to Sweden and then India, where he will attend the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on May 26.Speaking to reporters about energy cooperation with India, he said, “We want to sell them as much energy as they’ll buy and obviously you’ve seen I think we’re at historic levels of US production and US export. We want to be able to do more. We were already in talks with them to do more. We want to be a bigger part of their of their portfolio.”He then linked American energy exports with Venezuelan oil. “We also think there’s opportunities with Venezuelan oil. In fact, it’s my understanding that the interim president of Venezuela will be travelling to India next week as well. So, there’s opportunities,” Rubio said.The comments were unusual because third countries generally avoid publicly revealing high level foreign visits before official confirmation by the host country or the visiting side. India’s external affairs ministry has made no announcement about a visit by Rodríguez.According to sources, the Venezuelan interim president was expected to participate in the first International Big Cat Alliance summit in New Delhi.The IBCA, an India-led inter-governmental body dedicated to the conservation of seven big cat species, had extended invitations to 95 range countries.However, on Thursday night, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change announced that the IBCA summit had been rescheduled. The ministry said the summit had been organised “in conjunction with” the Fourth India-Africa Forum Summit, which was also postponed earlier on Wednesday due to the Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa.“In order to ensure broad and active participation from all Range countries, including African countries, the First IBCA Summit too will be convened at a later date,” the ministry said. New dates would be announced after consultations with participating countries.The WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern.Rubio appeared to be speaking on the assumption that the IBCA summit was still on schedule. It is unclear whether Rodriguez will still travel to India independently of the summit.But, not only did Rubio reveal the planned visit before the host country, he framed it within the context of energy sales, treating Venezuelan oil and American energy exports as part of a single pitch to New Delhi.India has significantly increased purchases of Venezuelan crude following the January political upheaval in Caracas and the emergence of a US-backed oil sales arrangement with the interim government led by Delcy Rodríguez, who assumed the presidency after Nicolás Maduro’s capture. Indian refiners have been scrambling for alternative sources after the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively shut by the US-Israel war on Iran for last three months.