'Zero tolerance for terrorism': Jaishankar reiterates US, India policy at press briefing with Marco Rubio

Later in the day, both of them held a press conference where they highlighted growing cooperation between US and India while simultaneously focusing on energy, West Asia crisis, defence and expansion of India's nuclear programme.

India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday morning.

Later in the day, both of them held a press conference where they highlighted the growing cooperation between US and India while simultaneously focusing on energy, West Asia crisis, defence and expansion of India's nuclear programme.

Addressing the media, Jaishankar welcomed Rubio to India and stated both countries have seen continuous engagement with each other.

He went on to say that both US and India's 'strategic partnership' emanates from aligned national interests.

"Yesterday, during the Secretary's call on the Prime Minister, some global and regional issues were discussed.

"In our subsequent meeting at the embassy, we took up developments pertaining to West Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and East Asia. I also shared with him some impressions I had of my recent visit to the Caribbean.

"Our talks today over lunch will focus on the latest developments in the Gulf. A few things have happened or seem to be happening overnight, and also on the Ukraine conflict," EAM said.

Jaishankar also touched upon topics of defence, economy, energy and battling terrorism during the press meet.

"The 10 year major Defence Partnership Framework Agreement was recently renewed. A comprehensive underwater domain awareness roadmap was also signed, " Jaishankar added.

"On the economic front, we spoke about the value of concluding at an early date, the final text of the interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, " he added.

An American team will be visiting India soon to chalk out plans for the comprehensive bilateral trade agreement.

While speaking regarding terrorism, Jaishankar lauded the US for facilitating in the extradition of key planner of 26/11, Tahawwur Rana.

"India and the United States have common interests, but they also face shared challenges. Prominent among them is terrorism. Our position in that regard is very clear. It is one of zero tolerance.

"We appreciate the strong cooperation between the concerned agencies of our two countries in this domain," he declared.

Later during the briefing, Rubio echoed Jaishankar's sentiments of India and US having aligned interests. He went on to say, "A strategic partnership is when your interests as two nations are aligned, and you work together strategically to solve those problems."

Calling India and US 'the two largest democracies in the world', Rubio said, "The list of issues that we work together with India on, the breadth and scope of them, is what highlights the fact that India is an important strategic partner of the United States"

US Secretary of State went on to say that everything action US and India take, they have justify to their population.

"You guys have a lot of media, which means a lot of scrutiny and a lot of attention.

"But that begins to align our interests immediately, because we both recognise and have mutual respect and understanding that every decision we make, every announcement we make, everything we work together on, we ultimately have to go back and justify it to our voters, to our people, the people who put us in these positions to begin with," he added.

Rubio began his 4-day visit to India yesterday. He met Prime Minister Modi and invited him to the White House on behalf of US Presidnt Donald Trump.