A formal dinner will be organized at the Roosevelt House in the national capital on Saturday in honor of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is on a four-day visit to India. It will be hosted by US Ambassador to India Sergio Gore.

According to the information, senior officials of the Government of India, eminent personalities from the business world, experts to innovation sector and strategic partners will participate in this program. These people are shaping the next phase of US-India cooperation.

The event will highlight bilateral ties for growing cooperation in areas such as trade, critical technology, security and investment. The presence of leaders from different sectors shows that the partnership between the two countries is no longer limited to just coordination between governments, but networks of entrepreneurs, institutions and industries are also turning it into practical cooperation.

Roosevelt House, which is the official residence of the US Ambassador to India, is situated on a 28-acre campus. It was earmarked for US diplomatic use in the 1950s. It was named after US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who supported India’s independence.

The building was designed by the famous American architect Edward Durrell Stone, who also designed the Chancery Building of the US Embassy in New Delhi. Its most striking features include its latticed structure made of hand-polished concrete blocks. Stones from Dholpur, Agra and Kota as well as Makrana marble have been used in the construction.

More than 700 guests attended its inauguration ceremony in January 1963, including President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Vice President Zakir Hussain and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The first US ambassador to live in Roosevelt House was John Kenneth Galbraith. A year before the inauguration he gave Jacqueline Kennedy a tour of the embassy complex, after which he commissioned Edward Durrell Stone to design the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Over the years, Roosevelt House has been visited by political leaders, astronauts, artists, scientists and writers. Prominent visitors have included President Trump, John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, artist Maqbool Fida Hussain and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Subramanian Chandrasekhar.