Kicking off the Washington segment of his U.S. trip, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had a meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. As The Hindu went to press, Mr. Jaishankar was also in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The meetings are routine but also particularly significant given the recent and serious diplomatic challenges in the India-Canada relationship following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that the Indian government was linked to the assassination of a Khalistani separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia.
Officials have not, thus far, commented in any detail on the agenda of either the White House or State Department meetings, which come three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Washington and entail follow up work from that visit. Mr. Modi’s June visit saw the announcement of a large set of programmes, covering a broad range of domains from space to health. Mr. Jaishankar also routinely visits Washington DC in the autumn, following his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.
“Recognised the tremendous progress in our bilateral relationship this year and discussed taking it forward,” Mr. Jaishankar tweeted describing his Thursday morning meeting with Mr. Sullivan.
Meets Trade Representative
Mr. Jaishankar also met with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
“Spoke about our expanding trade and economic relationship and its broader significance,” he said about the meeting on social media site X.
The U.S. and India recently announced the termination of their disputes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This was an outcome of the State visit in June.
The External Affairs Minister also announced that he had an interaction with think tanks in Washington posting a photograph on X of the interaction, which included India’s Ambassador to the U.S., Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
“Discussed transformations underway around the world and India’s growing role,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
Standing in the State Department’s Treaty Room before their bilateral meeting, Mr. Jaishankar thanked Mr. Blinken for the U.S.’ support to India’s G-20 presidency and indicated that he looked forward to hosting Mr. Blinken for the 2+2 foreign and defence ministers’ dialogue.
Mr. Blinken mentioned his meetings with Mr. Jaishankar at the G-20 and around UNGA. The Secretary did not answer a question on how the diplomatic conflict with Canada would impact the India-U.S. relationship. The U.S. has encouraged India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation. India has denied any involvement in the death of Nijjar.
