West Asian and Indo-Pacific situations are discussed by US Secretary of State Blinken and EAM Jaishankar
Discussions between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday morning included the state of affairs surrounding the Hamas-Israel conflict as well as methods to strengthen the strategic alliance between the US and India.
The sixth iteration of the India-US “2+2” defense and foreign ministers conversation was preceded by the Jaishankar-Blinken meeting.
The foreign affairs minister called his discussions with his US colleague “open and productive” in a post on “X.”
“Happy to meet this morning with Secretary of State @SecBlinken.” a candid and fruitful discussion on advancing our strategic alliance. Additionally discussed Indo-Pacific, West Asian, and other regional concerns,” he said.
The US Secretary of State has been involved in intense diplomatic negotiations about the Israel-Hamas conflict for the last several weeks.
In Delhi for the “2+2” conversation, Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are trying to advance the future roadmap for stronger strategic collaboration between the US and India.
Leading the Indian team during the negotiations will be Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
The “2+2” conversation and the bilateral meeting between Singh and Austin are anticipated to cover a range of strategic, defense, and technological topics, according to the ministry of defense.
The “2+2” discourse, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), will allow for a high-level assessment of the advancements being achieved in intersecting areas of defense and security cooperation, technological value chain partnerships, and people-to-people linkages.
In their talks in June and September of this year, President Joseph Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisioned a futuristic roadmap for the India-US alliance, which the ministers would use to advance. That was said two days ago by the MEA.
It was said that both parties will assess current regional concerns and discuss common goals for enhancing cooperation in multilateral forums and via frameworks like Quad.
