US Secretary of State talks with counterpart S. Jaishankar

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday held a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and discussed regional as well as global issues.

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Jaishankar stated that they noted the steady progress in India-US ties. He tweeted, “A warm conversation, as always with US Secretary of State @SecBlinken this morning. Discussed current regional and global issues. Noted the steady progress in our bilateral ties.” Earlier in March, Jaishankar held a meeting with Antony Blinken.

The two leaders discussed measures to mitigate the global impacts of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Blinken and Jaishankar held talks on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New Delhi.

During the meeting, Blinken spoke to Jaishankar and shared his views on tackling global and regional challenges. In a statement, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said that Blinken met with Jaishankar to discuss how India and the US can expand technology and defence cooperation and increase food energy, and health security.

Ned Price also noted that Blinken and Jaishankar spoke about efforts to elevate and expand strategic technology and defence industrial cooperation and promote food, energy, and global health security. The two leaders also held discussions to promote clean energy transition, counternarcotics cooperation and women’s economic empowerment.

During his visit to India, Blinken attended the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and Quad Foreign Ministers meet on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi. Blinken said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is right that there are real challenges to multilateralism and added that they are directly from Russia.

Addressing a presser in India, Blinken said that PM Modi was right that there were challenges to multilateralism. He blamed Russia for creating problems. He pointed out, “We see that playing out at the UN, two countries blocking…”

“PM Modi is right that there are challenges to the multilateral system. And those challenges in many ways are coming directly from Russia which is violating the principles that lie at the heart of that system,” Blinken said.