NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke over the phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday and discussed global and regional matters. “A warm conversation as always with Secretary Blinken. We discussed current regional and global issues and noted the steady progress in our bilateral ties,” said Jaishankar.
The EAM has just concluded his visit to Uganda and Mozambique and Secretary Blinken to Vietnam. It was Blinken’s first visit to Vietnam as Secretary and he spoke about US’ commitment to elevate the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership and to work together to a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The US has always spoken about strengthening the Indo-Pacific with India as a steady partner. With the Chinese building up around Taiwan and US’s constant support to Taiwan, tension is rising. Jaishankar and Blinken had met in March in Delhi during the G20 Foreign Ministers meet. On the sidelines of the event they had a bilateral meeting.
On Saturday, the Indo-Pacific Coordinator of the US National Security Council, Kurt Campbell while addressing a programme ‘Celebrating Togetherness’ talked about strong people-to-people ties between India and the US. He said that the ties between the two nations will get better in future.
“There is no stronger people-to-people ties between any country that the US enjoys with India. We have built a stronger relationship and situation will only get better, it will get stronger and deeper,’’ Campbell said. In March, Jaishankar and Blinken had participated in discussions on how to mitigate the global impacts of the ongoing Russia-Ukarine war.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meet. They spoke about shared efforts to elevate strategic and defense technology cooperation, promote food, energy and global health security, clean energy transition, counternarcotics cooperation, and women’s economic empowerment.