India and US discuss Iran-Israel conflict, Ukraine, China, Bangladesh
The two sides reviewed progress in India-US bilateral partnership in areas of emerging and critical technologies, where there has been progress on sectors such as semiconductors
External affairs minister S Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken discussed the intensified conflict in West Asia including Iranian strikes against Israel, the war in Ukraine and India’s efforts for peace, developments in Bangladesh where the two countries have differing assessments of the movement that led to a change in the regime, and developments in the Indo-Pacific, including China’s actions on Tuesday.
The two also reviewed progress in India-US bilateral partnership in areas of emerging and critical technologies, where there has been progress on sectors such as semiconductors, and clean energy.
Jaishankar met Blinken at the State Department in Washington DC. The two had met in Delaware during the Quad Leaders’ summit and the bilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and PM Narendra Modi on September 21, and then in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly during a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting. The engagement between the foreign ministers comes at an intense time in India-US diplomacy, even as America is grappling with elections internally and two wars externally.
In his opening remarks ahead of the meeting, Blinken first addressed the press on Iran’s strikes against Israel. He termed it completely unacceptable, hoped other countries would condemn it, and expressed America’s support for Israel. Blinken then welcomed his “friend”, Jaishankar, and said that recent weeks had shown “the incredible vibrancy, strength behind the partnership”.
Jaishankar said that he looked forward to reviewing both bilateral ties and global developments, including the events that Blinken had mentioned, referring to Iranian strikes. Hours before the meeting, at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Jaishankar had said India was concerned about the broadening of the conflict in West Asia, adding, “Don’t underestimate the importance of communication in difficult times. If there are things to be said and passed on and back, I think those are all contributions that we can make, and we do.”
In the past, India is understood to have played a role in communicating between the US and Iran, including most recently during the April crisis when the US was expecting an Iranian response to an Israeli provocation and was counselling proportionality and restraint to all sides.
Referring to the Delaware meeting between Biden and Modi, Blinken said, “The warmth of that meeting, the ambition in the relationship, is at a level we have never seen before. And I think it’s a reflection of the value that both countries attach to this partnership – a partnership in so many different areas, including strategic technology sectors, including space, including semiconductors, including clean energy, where our countries increasingly are working together and creating new opportunities for people in both India and the United States but also more broadly than that around the world.”
Blinken also hailed India as playing a “critical role” on the global stage on peace, stability, and security and said this was a good opportunity for them to “take stock” of the issues on which India and the US are working together.
Jaishankar thanked Blinken for a “very very good” Quad meeting in Delaware. After the meeting, Jaishankar posted on X, “We followed up on the Delaware bilateral and Quad meetings. Our discussions also covered deepening bilateral cooperation, situation in West Asia, recent developments in the Indian subcontinent, the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine.”
In its readout of the meeting, the State Department said Blinken and Jaishankar discussed “enduring commitment” of both sides to deepen ties, and agreed to “coordinate closely on regional and global issues”, and advance tech cooperation.
While the minister didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the issues, neither did the State Department refer to countries that were discussed, people familiar with the development said that Bangladesh figured in the discussions where the Indian side conveyed its concerns about the rise of radical and extremist forces, the potential for instability in the polity, and its security implications.
The State Department added, “Secretary Blinken noted Prime Minister Modi’s August visit to Kyiv and reiterated the importance of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.” The Indian leadership has kept key interlocutors briefed on India’s engagement with Ukraine and Russia in the past three months and its efforts towards peace.
Modi’s visit to Kyiv helped allay the apprehensions that his visit to Moscow during the 75th NATO summit anniversary in Washington had generated, and American policymakers are understood to have been more appreciative of India’s ability to speak to both sides. India is now engaged in the specifics of Ukraine crisis and has passed on messages between both sides; it is also tentatively exploring ways to bring key actors in a limited format to encourage dialogue, even as it is aware that the presidential elections in the US remain a major variable that will shape both Russia and Ukraine’s calculations.
The two leaders, according to the State Department readout, also discussed plans to expand collaboration on “clean energy initiatives” to address the global climate crisis.
The diplomatic activity comes in the final lap of the Biden presidency. In an essay published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday on Biden’s foreign policy record, Blinken wrote about elevating Quad and raising the ambition of the Indian-US strategic partnership as key highlights. Biden used the Delaware summit to cast Quad as a personal legacy.
For its part, the Indian side has used the past 10 days of intense diplomacy on the India-US front to consolidate the achievements in ties under the Biden administration, take stock of the progress and challenges and appreciate the contribution of key actors within the US system.
Between Modi’s own meetings with Biden in Delaware and Jaishankar’s visit to DC, foreign secretary Vikram Misri also visited DC last week and met US principal deputy NSA Jon Finer, deputy Secretary of State Richard R Verma, and deputy secretary of defense Kathleen Hicks.
Minister for industry and commerce Piyush Goyal will be in DC this week to attend the India-US CEO Forum and bilateral commercial dialogue, besides signing an MOU on critical minerals. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will have bilateral engagements with the American side when she visits DC to attend the World Bank-IMF fall meetings at the end of the month. And in August, defence minister Rajnath Singh visited the US.