In a bid to enhance growing ties between India and America, Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar who is presently on a visit to the United States, on Friday met Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson.
Jaishankar said that various bilateral issues, including terrorism, Asia-Pacific and Afghanistan, were discussed in the meeting.
“I would characterise our discussions this way. Obviously, a lot of focus was on U.S.-India rather than other countries. But, we did discuss the global strategic landscape and exchanged ideas. In a sense, we are the continuity part of this relationship. In the meetings with the Secretary of the State, with the national security advisor, we discussed Asia-Pacific, Afghanistan. We discussed the challenge of terrorism,” he said.
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The Foreign Secretary also held meetings with a number of senior U.S. administration officials including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly, National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, House speaker Paul Ryan along with meetings with senior member of the Congress.
A wide range of issues were discussed during these meetings, while keeping the focus on India-US relationship.
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While responding to a poser on new targets and ambitions, Jaishankar said the current U.S. administration looked interested in working with India in a number of areas.
“At this time a lot of it was conceptual. On the economic basket, we saw a very strong interest in growing our trade, increase in investment, in finding various ways of cooperating with each other,” he said.
The Foreign Secretary also interacted with American business through the US-India Business Council.
He added his visit had overall been very productive and the new administration had a very positive view of India.
Jaishankar also said there was a lot of interest in taking the India-U.S. relationship forward. He also mentioned that he extended an invitation to Tillerson and Ross to visit India at an early date, which they accepted in principal.
Jaishankar’s four-day visit to the U.S. was aimed at sensitising the Trump administration about India’s concerns over the security of Indian nationals in the U.S. following a possible cut in H1B and L1 visas.
This is the Foreign Secretary’s second visit to the U.S. since the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the U.S.