US STANDS WITH INDIA IN COVID BATTLE: BLINKEN TO JAISHANKAR
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Friday assured external affairs minister S Jaishankar that Washington would stand with New Delhi in tackling Covid-19 just as India had stood by the US in the initial days of the pandemic last year.
The assurance came as Jaishankar met Blinken in Washington to discuss cooperation in the global response to Covid-19, including access to vaccines and raw materials, and regional developments such as the situation in Afghanistan. Jaishankar is the first Indian cabinet minister to visit the US since the Biden administration assumed office in January.
“India was there for the US... now we want to make sure that we’re there for and with India,” Blinken told reporters before beginning his meeting with Jaishankar. He added that the India, US relationship is “vital”.
Jaishankar said India-us relations had grown stronger over the years and expressed his gratitude for the strong support and solidarity shown by the Biden administration “at a moment of great difficulty for us”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Friday assured his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar that Washington would stand with New Delhi in tackling Covid-19 just as India had stood by the US in the initial days of the pandemic last year.
The assurance came as Jaishankar met Blinken in Washington to discuss cooperation in the global response to Covid-19, including access to vaccines and raw materials, and regional developments such as the situation in Afghanistan. Jaishankar is the first Indian cabinet minister to visit the US since the Biden administration assumed office in January.
“We remember in the earlier days of Covid, India was there for the US, something we’ll never forget, and now we want to make sure that we’re there for and with India,” Blinken told reporters before beginning his meeting with Jaishankar at the state department.
Jaishankar said India-us relations had grown stronger over the years and expressed his gratitude for the strong support and solidarity shown by the administration “at a moment of great difficulty for us”.
The US administration and private firms have delivered relief materials and equipment worth more than $500 million to India to help the country’s response to a devastating second wave of coronavirus pandemic in India.
Access to the US surplus stockpiles of Covid-19 vaccines and opening up supply chains for raw materials and components needed to ramp up the production of vaccines have been a focus area of Jaishankar’s five-day visit to the US.
The Biden administration has announced it will donate 80 million doses of vaccines to countries around the world by June and India is hoping to get a significant number of jabs both directly and through the Whobacked COVAX facility.
Jaishankar on Thursday held a wide range of discussions with top officials of the Biden administration, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, US trade representative Katherine Tai, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and top spy Avril Haines, besides members of Congress and business leaders, in a first such expansive in-perbiden son engagement between the two governments.
In a statement, the White House National Security Council said the leaders agreed that the two countries “should continue working closely together to address common challenges throughout the Indo-pacific region”.
Jaishankar also held a meeting with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin during which they discussed further developing strategic and defence partnership between the two countries and exchanged views on “contemporary security challenges”.