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Jaishankar, Sullivan hold meet, agree to take forward ties
Jaishankar also met US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Thursday, with the two speaking about the expanding India-US trade and economic relationship
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and US national security advisor Jake Sullivan have recognised the tremendous progress in India-US bilateral relations this year and had discussions to take it forward.
In his first official bilateral engagement after arriving in the American capital, Jaishankar met Sullivan on Thursday morning, and subsequently tweeted, “Recognized the tremendous progress in our bilateral relationship this year and discussed taking it forward.” The White House, till the time of going to press, hadn’t issued a readout of the meeting. Jaishankar is scheduled to meet Secretary of State Antony J Blinken in the State Department later on Thursday.
Jaishankar also met US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Thursday, with the two speaking about the expanding India-US trade and economic relationship and “its broader significance”. In the last three months, the two countries have succeeded in resolving all seven of their disputes at WTO through bilateral channels.
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He also had a private roundtable with representatives from DC’s vibrant thinktank community, with many institutions now having dedicated South Asia or India-specific programmes and researchers. The minister tweeted, “ An open and productive conversation with Think Tanks in Washington DC this morning. Discussed transformations underway around the world and India’s growing role.”
The meetings come in the backdrop of both intense and productive activity on the bilateral front, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying a state visit to Washington DC in June and President Joe Biden visiting New Delhi for the G20 summit earlier this year. US ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has also confirmed that India has invited Biden to be the chief guest for Republic Day on January 26.
But the Jaishankar-Sullivan meeting also happened in the backdrop of Canada’s allegations linking “agents” of the government of India to the killing of a Canadian citizen, who India had designated as a terrorist, and the issue is certain to have figured in the conversation.Articulating the American position on the issue last week, Sullivan had expressed concerns about the allegations, said US and Canada were in close consultations on the issue, rejected the perception of a “wedge” between DC and Ottawa on the issue, and said there could be no “special exemptions” in the regard. As NSA, he also has visibility on the intelligence and supposed evidence that forms the basis of the allegation.
But Sullivan, Biden’s closest foreign policy aide who sits in the White House, is also an architect and supporter of the administration’s investment in the India relationship, and the official US lead on the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET), which has opened up cooperation between the two countries in a variety of domains from semiconductors to defence innovation, telecom networks to defence industrial linkages, space to quantum, among others. Jaishankar’s tweet suggests that both sides have focused on sustaining this momentum in bilateral relations.
