White House National Security Adviser receives Jaishankar

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with India’s Minister Jaishankar.

“Our people-to-people ties and our values are the foundation of the US-India partnership and will help us end the pandemic, lead on climate, and support a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Sullivan on Twitter.

Jaishankar indicated wide-ranging discussions including on Indo-Pacific and Afghanistan were held.

“Conveyed appreciation for US solidarity in addressing the COVID-19 challenge. India-US vaccine partnership can make a real difference,” said the minister.

On his first visit to the US since the start of President Joe Biden’s administration, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called the India-US relationship one of the most important relationships in the world.

“I think our relationship has come a long way. It is, today, one of the major relationships in the world,” he told former (Trump administration) National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster of the Hoover Institution, during a webcast discussion.

Jaishankar also said he had a “big agenda” for the relationship.

“My own sense is that in Washington today there is a real appreciation of the potential of this relationship … and it’s true of New Delhi as well,” he said, adding that the challenge today is for countries to learn to work with each other more effectively in a multipolar world.

“I see a big change in the American mindset in that regard,” he said.

“The United States has not only an enormous ability to reinvent itself, it also has a great ability to assess its situation and re-strategize, in a way. And I do think today that when it comes to the big issues of our day …we have fundamental convergences. Convergences which are societal convergences, which are geopolitical. And I think the challenge before us is how to translate those convergences into actionable policies,” he said.