Behind the smiles

Afghanistan's shadow on Indo-US relations

The joint press conference by Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar and visiting United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken was apparently a comradely exercise, but there were nevertheless deep cleavages in view between the Indian and the American perspectives on regional security in particular. The precipitate US withdrawal from Afghanistan — a decision taken by President Joe Biden and being implemented at the moment — was clearly a continued irritant. The Indian perspective is that it will create major instability in South Asia and beyond. Mr Jaishankar did not criticise the decision directly, saying merely that it was already