Washington, DC: (LR) Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during the 4th US-India 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue at the State Department in Washington, DC.
Highlight
- S Jaishankar said that India-US relations have the power to discuss all issues.
- Jaishankar was in the US to attend the 2+2 ministerial talks with Rajnath Singh.
- He said that the discussion took place on all those issues which were dominated by the situation in Ukraine.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday concluded his visit to the US capital, saying the relationship between India and the US has the strength and level of comfort to discuss all issues on which both sides do not agree. Jaishankar was here to attend two plus two ministerial talks with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. The US delegation was led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The 2+2 ministerial was preceded by a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.
In an interaction with a group of Indian journalists here, Jaishankar said the discussions took place on all issues, which certainly dominated bilateral issues apart from the situation in Ukraine, development in India’s neighborhood and the Indo-Pacific. However, the issue of human rights was not part of the discussion, he insisted.
Responding to a question, Jaishankar vehemently denied the notion that the situation in Ukraine was going to harm India-US relations. “I don’t think it will be a strain on India-US relations. Look, I’m here today. .. I’ve been pretty open and candid about my position and our approach. I would say, overall fairness, so be Americans Today, we have the strength and comfort level to discuss a lot of issues in our relationship. We cannot agree on all the issues. We also have the strength and comfort to deal with it,” he said.
There has been a big change in Indo-US relations. “And it really allows us to do a lot more and relate to each other in a very different way than we did 10 years ago or even 20 years ago,” he said.
Asked about India’s role in Ukraine’s peace process, Jaishankar said New Delhi conveys its goodwill to build relations with many parties, including Russia, Ukraine, Europe with the US and Russia and Ukraine’s many neighbors in this process. brings. “Our intention is to be helpful…,” he said.
Jaishankar said while overseeing his discussions with officials from the Biden administration, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, his bilateral with Blinken, the Commerce Secretary and US Trade Representative, the 2+2 ministerial and his appearance at the Modi-Biden virtual. A lot of time went by for the situation in Ukraine.
“The US side presented their point of view, their analysis, what they think is likely to happen. Conflict and peace, the diplomacy involved, the peace talks, progress or lack of progress, was a set of issues that came up,” he said. .
Noting that the Ukraine conflict has had a very direct impact on the global economy as well, he said that they have to some extent affected the energy situation, the food security of all countries, and what can be done, with the humanitarian situation and what are the different countries. , discussed this. Work.
“In addition to the situation in Ukraine, we spent a fair amount of time on the Indo-Pacific reviewing progress in September,” he said, adding that preparations for the next Quad summit meeting in Japan were underway.
“The President and the Prime Minister talked about it. It was pretty detailed, where are we, what else do we have to do between now and next time we meet, and how do we move that forward,” he said.
He said there was a lot of discussion about more economic activity in the Indo-Pacific, what different countries can do and specifically what the Quad can actually do to promote greater economic cooperation in that region.
“There was interest on some developments in the Indian subcontinent, … there have been difficulties in Sri Lanka. There have been changes in Pakistan. There was a little discussion on what happened recently in Nepal, Myanmar.” That said, he said they are typical of the India-US dialogue.
Jaishankar said the two countries updated each other about Afghanistan, and what has been happening there and there was some discussion on the situation in the Gulf. Referring to talks on the Iranian nuclear deal, he said, “We understand where things are with respect to the JCPOA.”
On global issues, the two countries discussed COVID, health response, vaccine supply, climate change, energy and post Glasgow, how the two countries can work together and energy and food apart from the global economy. “We talked about terrorism, about our cooperation in UN Security Council committees, FATF. In our 2+2 format – there was some exchange of views on defense, with US companies working on Make in India policies and more. How can it come strong,” he said. There was also some discussion on important and emerging technologies on issues like 5G and reliable supply chain, he said.
Responding to a question on CAATSA restrictions, Jaishankar said it is for the Americans to decide. “It’s essentially them to sort it out. I mean, it’s their law and whatever has to be done has to be done by the administration,” he said. Jaishankar said no specific request was made to the US for India to mediate on the situation in Ukraine.
“No, there was no specific message or shall I say, coming into the communication, which was suggested to us. That’s not at all how it works. What you are doing at the moment is a bunch of countries whose There are relations. We will have relations with all the parties concerned,” he said.
Stating that the situation in Ukraine is something that worries everyone, he said that it not only worries everyone, but also has consequences for most of the people.
“So, it’s only natural in the international community to say what we can do to help alleviate the situation,” he said. “Our discussions with the Americans were more about what all we could do was, first of all, encourage an early separation of hostilities? That’s where we believe the focus should be. And we think, of the international. A large section of the community and many other countries, some of which have also taken very active interest, think on very similar lines,” Jaishankar said.
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