New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar concluded his New York leg of the 10-day visit to the United States, where he held more than 50 meetings, of which 40 were one-to-one, apart from bilateral, trilateral and group meeting.

Many of his meetings with his counterparts were bilateral ones while some of them were informal meetings.

On Monday, the External Affairs Minister met with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in Washington, where he is on a four-day trip, and discussed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework alongside high technology cooperation between the two countries.

The bilateral meetings he had with are: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Sweden foreign ministers (FM) Ann Linde, Syria FM Mekdad, Belarus FM Makei, Armenia FM, Saudi FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Russia FM Lavrov, Venezuela FM Carlos Faria, Jordan FM Hsafadi, Cyprus FM Ioannis Kasoulides, Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, Australia FM Penny Wong, Madagascar FM Richard J. Randriamandrato, Morocco FM Bourita,  Spain FM José Manuel Albares Bueno, FMs of Greece, Paraguay, Moldova, Mexico, Japan, German, Bolivia, Norway, Estonia, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Austria, Libya, Türkiye,  Trinidad & Tobago, Albania, Malta, Egypt, Indonesia, UAE, Cuba, Ethiopia, Serbia and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

No structured bilateral meeting took place between Jaishankar and his Chinese or Pakistani counterparts given the present state of the relationship.

Jaishankar also participated in four key trilateral at the ministerial level. These are the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA), India-France-Australia, India-Indonesia-Australia and India-France-UAE.

The IBSA meet issued a joint statement focussing on cooperation in multilateral organisations, South-South Cooperation and United Nations and Security Council reform.

India will be hosting the 6th IBSA summit on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in November 2022 even as the presidency of the grouping is handed over to Brazil.

The other three trilateral meets focused on the Indo-Pacific issue.

The Indian foreign minister attended a meeting of five grouping meetings. These are Quad, BRICS, G4, India-Caricom, G77 and bodies such as L69, India-CELAC Quartet.

The Quad’s joint statement said the focus has been on ransomware and the announcement of a partnership on humanitarian assistance.

India will be hosting the Quad foreign ministers meeting next year, and the summit in 2024.

While the G4 meet, including India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan, called for reforms of the United Nations Security Council, BRICS in a media statement saw China and Russia “reiterating the importance to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs” and expressing support to their aspiration to “play a greater role in the UN”.

The statement, a standard one, does not clarify if China is keen on India getting a seat on the UNSC.

Notably, Beijing has been putting a block on UN reforms, especially India being on the high table.

Jaishankar also addressed the United Nations Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly, where he put India's position and worldview on several issues.

The UNSC meeting was in Ukraine and it was chaired by France. In the meeting, Jaishankar said, "Trajectory of the Ukraine conflict is a matter of profound concern for the entire international community" while expressing New Delhi's worries over the situation.

The UNGA speech undoubtedly was the key focus. The 17-minute-long speech saw, sending a message to both Islamabad on the issue of terrorism, and Beijing on four key counts—debt crisis, stalling UN reforms, stopping listing of terrorists at UN and stability and security of Indo-Pacific.

He said, "Those who politicize the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril.”

China, earlier this month, put a hold on the listing of the key mastermind of 26/11 Sajid Mir from listing at the UNSC's international terror list—the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions committee. This was the third time that China blocked the listing of a Pakistan terrorist after Abdul Rehman Makki and Abdul Rauf.

He also met US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and discussed new opportunities for bilateral defence industrial cooperation, a move which Pentagon said would enhance New Delhi’s contribution as a regional security provider.

This meeting comes a day before Jaishankar meets his US counterpart Sec Anthony Blinken.

Have a look at the five-strong statements he made against the US

“You’re not fooling anybody by saying these things. Everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used,” the External Affairs Minister said referring to the argument made by the US that the F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism.

“I look at the media. You know, there are some newspapers you know, exactly, what they are going to write including one in this town,” Jaishankar said taking a dig at American media, especially the Washington Post, for ‘biased’ India coverage.

“Very honestly, it’s a relationship that has neither ended up serving Pakistan well nor serving the American interests. So, it is really for the United States today to reflect on what are the merits of this relationship and what do they get by it,” said Jaishankar on the US-Pakistan relationship.

“From 1965 pretty much for the next 40 years, there was no US defence equipment to India… This was not due to a lack of trying on India’s part. I can vouch for it myself… I’ve had my relatives, my father, and my grandfather, who worked with the defence ministry. So, I know firsthand what great efforts were made over those years to try to make the US understand that it was in the American interest to have a strong, united, independent, prosperous India. It takes two hands to clap. It was not just that all the problems are on the American side they were visitations on the Indian side as well,” Jaishankar on procuring defence equipment from the US.

“The big song and dance about the internet being cut…if you’ve reached a stage where you say that an internet cut is more dangerous than the loss of human lives, then what can I say?” Jaishankar said on the issue of scrapping Article 370 in Kashmir as he simultaneously slammed those who have criticised the snapping of internet services in law and order situations.

References:

firstpost.com