India, US ties critical for regional security: Blinken
US secretary of state holds wide-ranging talks on Afghanistan, Covid-19 response and regional security with Jaishankar
NEW DELHI: In reflection of growing bilateral ties between India and the US, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Wednesday held wide-ranging talks covering the situation in Afghanistan, Indo-Pacific engagements, Covid-19 response mechanism and ways to strengthen regional security.
At a joint media briefing, Blinken said there are few relationships in the world that are more vital than the one between the US and India.
At the same time, he said as the world’s leading democracies, “we take seriously our responsibilities” towards freedom, equality and opportunity to all of “our people”. But he added that “we know that we must constantly do more on these fronts, and neither of us has achieved the ideals that we
set for ourselves”.
Democracies should “always seek to strengthen our democratic institutions, expand access to justice and opportunity, stand up forcefully for fundamental freedoms,” Blinken said.
He said actions by India and the US shape the 21st century and beyond, and that is why strengthening partnership with India is one of the top foreign policy priorities of the US.
Blinken also announced that
the US will provide $25 million assistance to support Covid-19 vaccination efforts across India.
“US has contributed more than $200 million worth of Covid-19 assistance. I am pleased to announce that the United States government will send additional $25 million to support vaccination efforts across India,” Blinken announced during a joint press conference.
“This funding will contribute to saving a life by strengthening vaccine supply chain logistics, addressing misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and helping to train more health care workers. We are determined to end this pandemic in India and the United States. We will work to do it,” he added.
Referring to Afghanistan, Blinken said both India and the US are committed to the proposition that there is no military solution to the conflict in that country, asserting that there has to be a peaceful resolution that requires the Taliban and the Afghan government to come to the negotiating table.
“We both agreed strongly that any future government in Afghanistan has to be inclusive and fully representative of the Afghan people... Ultimately it has to be an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process,” he said.
Blinken said India “has and will” continue to make a vital contribution to Afghanistan’s stability and development.
On his part, Jaishankar said that the talks took place at an important juncture when key global and regional challenges needed to be effectively addressed.
“Our bilateral partnership enhanced to a level that it enables us to deal collaboratively with larger issues,” he said.
Jaishankar said the issue of the coronavirus pandemic was naturally a particular priority. “We discussed travel challenges resulting from Covid,” he said.
“We looked at Afghanistan, Indo-Pacific and the Gulf region,” he added.
On Afghanistan, Jaishankar said that the world wishes to see an independent, sovereign, democratic and stable Afghanistan.
New Delhi has often expressed concern that a Taliban takeover could lead to security threats against India.
Before meeting with Jaishankar, Blinken spoke to civil society leaders and said fundamental freedoms and rule of law are “tenets of democracies” like the US and India.
Blinken said both countries also need a vibrant civil society in order to make their democracies more open, inclusive, resilient and equitable.
Ahead of Blinken’s visit, the
US side had said it intended to raise human rights and democracy during the secretary of state’s engagements in New Delhi. The US has in the recent past spoken out on issues such as the situation in Kashmir and movements such as the farmers’ protest on the outskirts of Delhi.
The Indian side has usually been sensitive to such criticism and said before Blinken flew into New Delhi on Tuesday that is open to engaging on human rights and democracy with those who recognise the value of diversity.
Blinken described India and the US as democracies that are “works in progress”. Both sides talk about such issues as friends “because doing the hard work of strengthening democracy and making our ideals real is often challenging”, he said.
“At a time of rising global threats to democracy and international freedoms – we talk about a democratic recession – it’s vital that we two world leading democracies continue to stand together in support of these ideals,” he said.
Blinken, on his first visit to India since becoming secretary of state, said India’s achievements include a “free media, independent courts, a vibrant and free and fair electoral system – the largest expression of free political will by citizens anywhere in the world”.
Blinken will also meet national security adviser Ajit Doval and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, during which he said he would talk about many critical issues the two sides are working on together, including Covid-19, climate change, defence, mutual security, trade and investment, education, energy, and science and technology.