External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. ANI
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded his New York leg of the 10-day visit to the United States, where he held more than 50 meetings, of which 40 were one-to-one, apart from bilateral, trilateral and group meeting.
Many of his meetings with his counterparts were bilateral ones while some of them were informal meetings.
On Monday, the External Affairs Minister met with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington, where he is on a four-day trip, and discussed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework alongside high technology cooperation between the two countries.
He also met US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and discussed new opportunities for bilateral defence industrial cooperation, a move which Pentagon said would enhance New Delhi’s contribution as a regional security provider.
This meeting comes a day before Jaishankar meets his US counterpart Sec Anthony Blinken.
As the External Affairs Minister winds up his trip on Wednesday, we take a look at the five strong statements he made against the US:
“You’re not fooling anybody by saying these things. Everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used,” the External Affairs Minister said referring to the argument made by the US that F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism.
“I look at the media. You know, there are some newspapers you know, exactly, what they are going to write including one in this town,” Jaishankar said taking a dig at American media, especially the Washington Post, for ‘biased’ India coverage.
“Very honestly, it’s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well, nor serving the American interests. So, it is really for the United States today to reflect on what are the merits of this relationship and what do they get by it,” said Jaishankar on US-Pakistan relationship.
“From 1965 pretty much for the next 40 years, there was no US defence equipment to India… This was not due to a lack of trying on India’s part. I can vouch for it myself… I’ve had my relatives, my father, my grandfather, they worked with the defence ministry. So, I know firsthand what great efforts were made over those years to try to make the US understand that it was in American interest to have a strong, united, independent, prosperous India. It takes two hands to clap. It was not just that all the problems are on the American side they were visitations on the Indian side as well,” Jaishankar on procuring defence equipment from the US.
“The big song and dance about the internet being cut…if you’ve reached a stage where you say that an internet cut is more dangerous than loss of human lives, then what can I say?” Jaishankar said on the issue of scrapping of Article 370 in Kashmir as he simultaneously slammed those who have criticised the snapping of internet services in law and order situations.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.