US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has mentioned that he had a productive assembly with visiting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar throughout which they mentioned the bilateral ties, COVID-19 reduction efforts, India-China border state of affairs and Afghanistan and vowed to work collectively to handle areas of shared concern.
Jaishankar, the primary Indian Cabinet minister to go to the US since Joe Biden grew to become president on January 20, met Blinken on Friday.
Blinken welcomed Jaishankar to the Department of State, the place he reaffirmed the US administration’s dedication to deepening the US-India Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, State Department spokesperson Ned Price mentioned after the assembly.
Productive dialogue immediately with Dr S Jaishankar on regional safety and financial priorities to incorporate US COVID-19 reduction efforts, India-China border state of affairs, and our assist for Afghanistan, Blinken mentioned.
As associates, we’ll work collectively to handle these areas of shared concern, Blinken mentioned in a tweet, hours after the assembly with Jaishankar on the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
It has been greater than a yr because the army standoff between India and China erupted in japanese Ladakh on May 5, 2020 throughout which there have been fatalities on each side for the primary time in 45 years.
They have made restricted progress in attaining disengagement on the Pangong lake space whereas negotiations for related steps at different friction factors remained deadlocked.
In his tweet, Jaishankar mentioned that he had a productive dialogue with Blinken on numerous facets of bilateral cooperation in addition to regional and world points. Covered the Indo-Pacific and the Quad, Afghanistan, Myanmar, UNSC issues and different worldwide organisations, he mentioned.
“Also focused on Indo-US vaccine partnership aimed at expanding access and ensuring supply. Appreciated the strong solidarity expressed by the US at this time. Today’s talks have further solidified our strategic partnership and enlarged our agenda of cooperation,” Jaishankar mentioned.
In an interplay with a gaggle of Indian reporters, responding to a query, Jaishankar didn’t point out if China was mentioned particularly. Our dialogue was on your entire Indo-Pacific area. The dialogue was on safety points within the Indo-Pacific area, he mentioned.
India, the US and a number of different world powers have been speaking about the necessity to guarantee a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific within the backdrop of China’s rising army manoeuvring and aggression within the area.
The Chinese army can also be actively eying the strategic Indian Ocean area to step up Beijing’s affect. China claims practically all the disputed South China Sea, although Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all declare components of it. Beijing has constructed synthetic islands and army installations within the South China Sea.
In 2017, India, Australia, Japan and the US gave form to the long-pending proposal of establishing the ‘Quad’ or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China’s aggressive behaviour within the Indo-Pacific area.
Observing that the US is India’s strategic associate and has a robust relationship with it, Jaishankar mentioned that it’s however pure that the 2 nations focus on their challenges. The talks on the ministerial stage are principally at an evaluation stage, he mentioned.
The situation of S-400, a multi-billion-dollar missile system that Indian plans to purchase from Russia, was not raised in any of the conferences, he mentioned.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Dean Thompson mentioned that there have been simply discussions of developments on the India-China border.
I’m not going to characterise the discussions past that aside from to say we proceed to observe the state of affairs very intently and hope that the whole lot might be resolved peaceably as issues go ahead, he mentioned.
According to the State Department, the leaders mentioned a broad vary of points, together with COVID-19 reduction, efforts to strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation by means of the Quad, and a shared dedication to combating the local weather disaster and enhancing multilateral cooperation, together with on the UN Security Council.
Blinken and Jaishankar additionally mentioned regional developments, the coup in Burma (Myanmar) and persevering with assist for Afghanistan, Price mentioned, including that the 2 leaders pledged to proceed their cooperation on shared financial and regional safety priorities.
Thompson earlier informed reporters that the assembly demonstrated our deep dedication to the partnership and to strengthening it within the years to come back.
Today’s assembly between Blinken and Jaishankar, one of many first in-person visits that we now have had in Washington because the starting of the pandemic, showcased the breadth and depth of our relationship with India, which we view as one of the vital essential partnerships within the area and the world, he mentioned.
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