External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a meeting, in New Delhi, Wednesday, June 26. (Source: PTI)
7 years ago
Jun 26, 2019
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are set to hold a joint press conference today. Pompeo's talks here will be the first high-level interaction between the two countries after return of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government to power last month.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and his Indian counterpart stressed the strength of their two countries’ ties after a morning of meetings but reported little progress in resolving disputes over trade, defense and energy that have weighed on the partnership.
“Harmonizing our interests and our views, that’s really the task of diplomacy and I think secretary Pompeo would agree with me today that we have earned our pay,” External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a briefing alongside the top U.S. diplomat in New Delhi Wednesday. He said a key part of having a strategic relationship “is to comprehend the other nation’s interest.”
There’s a shared understanding of threat (from Iran), and a common purpose to ensure that we can keep energy at the right prices; and deter this threat, not only the threat in the narrow confines of the Middle East, but the threat that this terror regime poses to the entire world.
There is a deep appreciation for Indian in the United States, said U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo in today’s joint press conference. There is a large Indian community in the U.S. and a sizable American community in India as well, he said, adding that the U.S. understands India’s concerns and interests.
India and the United States have a strategic partnership and that is based on deep and broad convergences which have been growing steadily over the last many years, said Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar.
While there are some issues where the countries have their own perspectives, as countries and foreign affairs ministers, harmonising our interests and views is key, he said. “State Secretary Mike Pompeo would agree that we are on our way.”
India, which is heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil, is looking on with increasing apprehension as the U.S. and Iran flirt with war.
The country imported 84 percent of its crude in the last financial year, government data shows, and two of every three of those barrels was sourced from the conflict-prone region. A major war in the Middle East threatens to push up consumer prices, widen the nation’s external deficits, and potentially derail Modi’s bid to revive flagging economic growth. (Read More)
Here’s your reading list on the U.S.-Iran tensions:
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar are set to hold a joint press conference today, after they met for a working lunch.
The details of the Jaishankar-Pompeo meeting were immediately not known, but India's missile defence system deal with Russia, terrorism, H-1B visas, trade and the situation arising out of U.S. sanctions on buying oil from Iran, were likely to be discussed during the talks.
Pompeo's talks here will be the first high-level interaction between the two countries after return of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government to power last month.
Pompeo's visit comes ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Modi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan later this week.
