Washington DC: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in Washington DC on Wednesday for a series of meetings with top officials of the Biden administration to discuss bilateral ties and “interactions with business forums on economic & Covid-related cooperation between India and the US”.
During his three-day visit in the capital, Jaishankar is scheduled to meet Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The State Department has not yet announced the date of Blinken’s meeting with Jaishankar. Blinken was travelling in the Middle East to continue with the peace process.
“The secretary (of state) looks forward to meeting minister Jaishankar during his visit and discussing a broad range of issues, including COVID-19 relief, efforts to strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation through the Quad, enhanced UN and multilateral cooperation, and a range of other shared regional security and economic priorities,” a State Department spokesperson said earlier this week.
The U.S. has already announced that it is going to distribute 80 million vaccines from its stockpile to countries in need.
“The (defense) secretary will be meeting on Friday with the Indian Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar, as part of India’s first cabinet-level visit to Washington,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters at a news conference.
“The secretary is meeting with the external affairs minister, will continue discussions that the two held in New Delhi in March and will continue the robust bilateral defense and security relationship between our two countries. We are looking forward to having him here at the Pentagon and hosting him for a good set of talks,” Kirby said.
Jaishankar is expected to meet a group of eminent business leaders on Thursday at two different meetings organized by the US India Business Council and the US India Strategic and Partnership Forum.
Earlier on Wednesday, in a conversation with former US National Security Advisor General (retd) H.R. McMaster, Jaishankar said there is a real appreciation of the potential of the India-US relationship and what it can do. “I think the challenge before us is how to translate those convergences into actionable policies. That is really what I was very happy to work with you during your tenure as NSA… and I certainly look forward to doing that with the people in the administration.” He also defended the Indian government in the face of criticism in the West of its so-called “Hindutva policies”, saying there is a difference between “concocted” political imagery and its actual governance record.
Jaishankar, who arrived in New York Sunday, met UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and offered India’s support for his re-election. During their meeting they discussed a range of issues from Covid-19 vaccines to terrorism. Jaishankar tweeted that they emphasized the importance of finding “urgent and effective global vaccine solutions” and the critical need to ramp up the vaccine supply chain to “ensure greater production and fairer distribution.”
With India set to assume the rotating presidency of the Security Council in August, their meeting covered a wide range of issues. In a series of tweets on the meeting, Jaishankar said that they talked about “regional challenges in India’s neighborhood” and “shared our concerns about ensuring that the gains of the last two decades in Afghanistan are adequately protected.”
