India-US ties have strength, comfort to discuss all issues: Jaishankar

The relationship between India and the US has the strength and comfort level today to discuss all the issues including those on which the two sides don't agree with, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday as he concluded his trip to the American capital.

Jaishankar was here to attend the 2+2 ministerial dialogue along with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The US delegation was led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. The 2+2 ministerial was preceded by a virtual meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

In an interaction with a group of Indian reporters here, Jaishankar said that the discussion ranged on all issues, which of course was dominated by the situation in Ukraine, developments in India's neighbourhood and the Indo-Pacific, in addition to bilateral issues. However, the human rights issue was not part of the discussion, he asserted.

In response to a question, Jaishankar strongly refuted the notion that the situation in Ukraine is going to hurt India-US relationship.

"I don't think it'll be stressful on India-US relations. Look, I'm here today. ..I've been sort of fairly open and clear about our positions and our perspectives. I would say, in all fairness, so have been the Americans. Today, our relationship has the strength and the comfort level to discuss a lot of issues. We may not agree on all issues. We have the strength and the comfort to deal with that as well," he said.

There has been a huge change in the India-US relationship. "And that really allows us to do much more with each other and engage each other in a much different way than we would have done 10 years ago or 20 years ago, he said.

When asked about India's role in the Ukrainian peace process, Jaishankar said New Delhi brings to the process its goodwill of having relations with multiple parties - with Russia, with Ukraine, with Europe with America and many of the neighbours of Russia and Ukraine as well. "Our intent is to be helpful..., he said.

Giving an overview of his discussions with officials of the Biden Administration, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, his bilateral with Blinken, Commerce Secretary and US Trade Representative, the 2+2 ministerial and his attendance to the Modi-Biden virtual, Jaishankar said a lot of the time went to the situation in Ukraine.

"The US side presented their perspective, their analysis, their sense of what they think is likely to happen. The conflict and the peace, the diplomacy involved in it, the peace talks, the progress or the lack of progress, were a set of issues which came up," he said.

Observing that the Ukraine conflict has also had a very direct impact on the global economy, he said they discussed the energy situation at some length, food security of all countries, and what could be done, along with the humanitarian situation and what different countries are doing.

"Other than the Ukraine situation, we spent a fair amount of time on the Indo-Pacific reviewing what had been the progress in September," he said, adding that the preparation is on for the next Quad summit meeting in Japan.

"The President and the Prime Minister spoke about it. It was sort of fairly detailed, where are we, what more do we have to do between now and the next time we meet, and how do we take it forward, he said.

There was a lot of discussion about more economic activities in the Indo-Pacific, what is it that different countries can do and especially what is it that the Quad can do to really promote greater economic cooperation in that region, he said.

"There was interest,... on some developments in the Indian subcontinent. There have been difficulties in Sri Lanka. There have been changes in Pakistan. There was a little bit of discussion on what all has recently happened in Nepal, Myanmar," he said, adding that they are typical of India-US interaction.

Jaishankar said the two countries updated each other about Afghanistan, and what have been the developments there and there were some discussions on the Gulf situation. "We got a sense on where things are in regard to the JCPOA, he said, referring to the talks on the Iranian nuclear deal.

On global issues, the two countries had discussions on COVID, health response, vaccine supplies, climate change, energy, and post Glasgow, how the two countries can work together and the global economy as a whole, apart from energy and food.

"We spoke about terrorism, about our cooperation in the UN Security Council committees, FATF. There was - in our 2+2 format - some exchange of views on defence, including how American companies could come in more strongly in Make in India policies," he said. There was some talk on the critical and emerging technologies on issues like 5G and reliable supply chains also, he added.

Responding to a question on the CAATSA sanctions, Jaishankar said it is for the Americans to decide. "That's essentially for them to sort out. I mean, it is their legislation and whatever has to be done is to be done by the administration," he said.

Jaishankar said there was no specific request from the US for India to mediate on the Ukrainian situation.

"No, there was no specific message or shall I say, coming in communication, which was suggested to us. That's not quite how it works. What you are having at this point of time are a set of countries who have relations. We will have relations with all the parties concerned, he said.

Asserting that the Ukraine situation is something that worries everybody, he said it not just worries everybody, it also has consequences for most people.

"So, there is a natural interest in the international community to say, what can we do to help ease the situation," he said.

"Our discussions with the Americans was more about what is it we can all do to, first of all, encourage an early secession of hostilities? That's where we believe that the focus should be. And we do think, a large part of the international community and many other countries, some of whom have also taken very active interests, think along very similar lines," Jaishankar said.