Trump Administration Wants Ambitious Ties with India: Jaishankar
EAM S Jaishankar with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio Image credit X.com @drsjaishankar
India Raises San Franscico Consulate Attack Issue with US
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, January 22: Sharing his assessment of the Donald Trump administration’s approach to India, Union Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar exuded confidence of deepening of ties between the two nations. “My sense is that they want big, bolder, and ambitious bilateral relations with India,” said Jaishankar.
The minister while speaking to reporters in Washington DC said that “there is a sense that the Trump administration wants to build on ties on foundation laid in the first tenure of the Trump presidency”. Jaishankar held parleys with his counterpart, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Jaishankar also met the US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. He also took part in the Quad meeting hosted by Rubio.
“It was very clear that the Trump administration was keen to have India present at the inaugural itself. They are clearly prioritising the bilateral relationship,” said Jaishankar at the press conference.
He stated that “it was evident in the meetings that they would like to build on the foundation of the relationship”. “We have very strong degree of trust today between India and the United States, a very high level of convergence of our interests,” said Jaishankar. He also said that Bangladesh issue was also discussed with Rubio.
He, however, stated that discussions took place on several issues but they were not discussed in details. “There are a lot of opportunities here in the US. The focus on technology is deep here. The thrust is that we can do more, and the sense that I gathered is that the US wants more collaborations with India,” said Jaishankar.
Replying to questions, the minister said that he raised the issue of the attacks on the Indian consulate in San Fransisco with his counterpart. “This is a very serious matter for us, and we want accountability to be fixed. We have conveyed the sense of urgency to deal with the issue to the new administration,” said Jaishankar.
The Indian consulate was allegedly attacked by Sikh separatists. The Joe Biden administration had invited the wrath of the former Indian diplomats for not acting against the Sikh separatists.
Also, the Biden administration in the last few months had sided with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who alleged that the “Indian government was involved in the killing of Harjeet Singh Nijjar”. India had termed the Nijjar killing a fallout of the local gang war.
“While we build our bilateral partnership, definitely on regional issues and global issues, there is a lot of good that we can do. There was an agreement, a consensus between us, that we need to be bolder, bigger and more ambitious,” added Jaishankar, as he shared his sense of the Trump administration.
The minister mentioned that the issue of illegal immigrants was discussed in meetings. “In terms of the irregular migration, we had a discussion on a range of issues and one of the issues which came up was mobility of people,” said Jaishankar.
With regard to the Quad, I gather a very strong sense that the current administration would reciprocate our desire to take it further and intensify activities, said Jaishankar.
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