NEW YORK/WASHINGTON: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and held discussions on advancing the bilateral economic partnership and strategic cooperation.
“Pleased to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington, DC, today. Had a useful discussion on advancing the India–US economic partnership and strategic cooperation,” Jaishankar said in a post on X on Tuesday.
In a separate post, Bessent said he enjoyed the meeting with Jaishankar. “During our talks, we addressed the importance of securing supply chains, as well as other national and economic security issues of mutual interest,” he said.
Jaishankar is on a visit to the United States from February 2 to 4 and will participate in the Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting convened by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.
He also held bilateral discussions with Rubio at the State Department, during which the two “welcomed” the trade deal reached between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and discussed “formalising” bilateral cooperation on critical minerals exploration and mining.
Jaishankar’s meetings with both Bessent and Rubio came a day after Trump announced on Truth Social that India and the United States had agreed to a trade deal under which Washington would reduce the reciprocal tariffs imposed on New Delhi from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.
Bessent has been critical of India’s purchases of Russian oil. Last week, in the wake of the free trade agreement between India and the European Union, he described the Europeans as “very disappointing”, saying they were unwilling to join Washington in imposing tariffs on New Delhi over its purchases of Russian oil because of the trade deal.
“The US sanctioned, or imposed a 25 per cent tariff on, India for buying Russian oil. The Europeans were unwilling to join us, and it turns out this was because they wanted to pursue this trade deal. So every time you hear a European talk about the importance of the Ukrainian people, remember that they put trade ahead of the Ukrainian people. Trade — European trade — was more important than ending the war in Ukraine,” Bessent had said.