The Ukraine war and developments in the Indo-Pacific region remained in focus as foreign minister S Jaishankar met United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III at the Pentagon on Monday.
Jaishankar, who arrived in Washington after concluding his New York visit where he participated in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, was welcomed at the Pentagon to the honor cordon hosted by the US secretary of defense. The honor is extended to a distinguished person as a mark of courtesy. The foreign minister expressed pleasure at having met the top US defense official.
In a tweet, he said: “Defence and Security cooperation is a key pillar of the contemporary India-US partnership. We noted the steady progress in policy exchange, interoperability, defense trade, service exercises and military-industrial cooperation.”
"Exchanged perspectives on the Ukraine conflict, Indo-Pacific developments, maritime challenges and regional issues."
A video shared by news agency ANI showed the US forces honouring Jaishankar as he arrives and is welcomed by Lloyd Austin on the steps of the River Entrance.
{{/usCountry}}A video shared by news agency ANI showed the US forces honouring Jaishankar as he arrives and is welcomed by Lloyd Austin on the steps of the River Entrance.
{{/usCountry}}S Jaishankar – during his New York leg of the US visit– is said to have held a bunch of meetings with the world leaders. Some of them were one-to-one, and others were bilateral, trilateral, and group meetings.
He had concluded the high-level UNGA debate in New York on Saturday and later flew to Washington for a meeting with his American counterpart Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other top officials of the Biden administration.