Washington: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar assured the US administration on Wednesday of extending all necessary help in sorting out visa issues. He further said that things will get better soon.
“But I again, feel this is an issue where obviously it’s mainly for the US but we will be supportive and collaborative,” Jaishankar said responding to a question about people facing visa issues.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that the US is “building back” on the backlog of visa applications from Indian nationals and said the Biden administration has a plan that will play out in the coming months.
Jaishankar flagged concerns and challenges that Indians have been facing in receiving visas to work and live in the United States.
Speaking about India-US relations, Jaishankar said that the relationship between two countries today impacts the rest of the world as there are a lot of countries which look to the association individually and bilaterally and hope for solutions which the world is searching for in many aspects.
“I think our relationship today impacts the rest of the world. There are a lot of countries which look to us individually and bilaterally for some part of the betterment which they hope for solutions which the world is searching for in many respects,” Jaishankar said during the press briefing.
Referring to the bilateral consultations between the two countries as solid, positive and productive, Jaishankar underscored that the visit was very comfortable and he had some very good conversations with the Ministers in the US.
He further added that the bilateral conversations were framed under the pretext of larger global challenges and there was a very high degree of convergence as the priorities of India and the US, at times, have been different.
“That’s the sort of broad sense that I want to give you of a very solid, positive, productive bilateral conversation but framed in the context of larger global challenges where there was a very high degree of convergence on how we look at those challenges, we may articulate it a bit differently as we are oppositions and our priorities at some times will be different,” Jaishankar said in a statement during the briefing.
Describing the Washington visit as a comfortable one, the External Affairs Minister underscored that both the nations understand how to make space for each other and work despite not entirely agreeing on every aspect of every issue.