Source : India Today
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| EAM Jaishankar with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Photo: Twitter) |
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with his US counterpart Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday.
“Pleased to meet US Secretary of State Blinken on the G20FMM sidelines. Opportunity to review bilateral ties and discuss global issues,” Jaishankar said in a tweet.
Blinken’s visit to New Delhi comes after Blinken scrapped a trip to Beijing after a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over the United States.
In a tweet, Antony Blinken said his Delhi visit had two imperatives.
“First, to ensure that the G20, with India at the helm, advances our shared goals, and second, to demonstrate how the US, together with our partners, is acting to meet the needs of the world. We succeeded at both,” he added.
Jaishankar and Blinken were expected to hold talks on India-US strategic partnership, the G20, Asian Quad, defence cooperation, and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the prime minister’s office.
Besides the G20 member countries, the meeting is being attended by foreign ministers of nine guest countries – Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
The foreign ministers are also likely to discuss ways to deal with falling economic growth, increasing inflation, lower demands for goods and services as well as increasing prices of food, fuel and fertilisers.
However, the major flashpoint between the West and the Russia-China combine is expected to be the Ukraine conflict even as India is set to make all out efforts for a joint statement following the crucial meeting.
