Jaishankar, Blinken meet: India, US to work together to address 'shared concerns'

India and the United States will work together to address the “shared concerns”, including China's belligerence in eastern Ladakh.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken discussed the continued military stand-off along India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC). Jaishankar also discussed the issue with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin.

“Productive discussion today with @DrSJaishankar on regional security and economic priorities to include US Covid-19 relief efforts, India-China border situation, and our support for Afghanistan,” Blinken tweeted after his meeting with the External Affairs Minister in Washington D.C. late on Friday. “As friends, we will work together to address these areas of shared concern.”

The more-than-one-year-long military stand-off between India and China along the LAC also came up for discussion when Jaishankar had a separate meeting with the US Secretary of Defence earlier on the day. “A comprehensive conversation about further developing our strategic and defence partnership. Exchanged views on contemporary security challenges,” Jaishankar posted on Twitter after the meeting with Austin.

President Joe Biden’s administration is continuing to “watch the situation (along India-China LAC) very closely” and hopes that “everything can be resolved peaceably as things go forward”, the acting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Dean Thompson, said. She was briefing journalists after the meeting between Jaishankar and Blinken.

The Indian Army has been engaged in a stand-off with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in eastern Ladakh since May 2020, when it mobilized additional troops along the LAC after the communist country deployed a large number of soldiers to alter the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two neighbouring nations. The two sides earlier this year withdrew front-line troops from the northern and the southern banks of the Pangong Tso lake, but they could not yet agree on similar disengagement on several other face-off points.

Also read: S Jaishankar meets Blinken, Lloyd Austin, thanks them for US's help in India's Covid-19 fight

As New Delhi’s ties with Beijing hit a new low over the military stand-off along the LAC, the strategic convergence between India and the US, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, grew over the past few months. Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan and Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia had a virtual summit on March 12 to elevate the ‘Quad’, which the four nations had revived in 2017 to build a coalition of democracies to counter the hegemonic aspirations of China.

Blinken and Jaishankar also discussed the coup in Myanmar, peace process with Taliban in Afghanistan and the proposed withdrawal of the US combat forces from the conflict-ravaged country by September 11, a source in New Delhi said.

Austin and Jaishankar exchanged views “on a range of regional security challenges”, John Kirby, the press secretary of the US Department of Defence, said. The External Affairs Minister and the US Secretary of Defence reaffirmed commitment to sustaining “a free and open Indo-Pacific region” and strengthening the Major Defence Partnership between the two nations.

Jaishankar’s is first high-level visit from India to the US after Biden succeeded Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. Austin, who was on a visit to New Delhi from March 19 to 20, was the first top US official to travel to India after the change of guard in the White House. Biden’s special envoy for climate, John Kerry, too visited New Delhi early last month.

The External Affairs Minister is likely to travel to Washington D.C. again later this year along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. They will be hosted by Blinken and Austin for the annual India-US 2+2 dialogue.