Weeks ahead of the swearing-in of US President-elect Donald Trump, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is travelling to the U.S. to meet with officials in the outgoing Biden administration, as well as the Trump administration team.
Mr. Jaishankar, who will be in the U.S. from December 24-29, will join Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who is already in Washington for Foreign Office Consultations (FOC).
In a statement about Mr. Jaishankar’s previously-unannounced visit on Monday (December 23, 2024), the Ministry of External Affairs gave no specific details of which U.S. officials he would meet during the week.
“Mr. Jaishankar] will be meeting counterparts to discuss key bilateral, regional and global issues,” the MEA statement said, adding that during the visit, the External Affairs Minister would chair a conference of the Consul Generals of India in the USA.
Sources confirmed to The Hindu, that the Biden administration is also keen to schedule one last meeting of the NSA-level Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) before demitting office, and are working on a possible visit by US NSA Jake Sullivan to Delhi in early January. Among projects that the two sides are working on as a part of iCET, that was launched first in February 2023, is transfer of technology (ToT) negotiations, including the GE-F414 Jet engines deal that was agreed to during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington in June 2023. The two sides have also discussed cooperation in biotechnology, space cooperation, quantum technologies Artificial Intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, most recently when Mr. Sullivan travelled to Delhi to meet with the government just after elections in June this year.
India and the U.S. have been in close consultation over the conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria and the recent change in government in Bangladesh.
Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Misri are also expected to engage with members of the Trump transition team, as well as some of the top nominees for the State Department and Department of Defence about high-level meetings soon after the Trump inauguration on January 20th, as well as an early date for Mr. Trump to travel to India for the Quad Summit to be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi next year. The visit by Mr. Jaishankar mirrors a similar visit he undertook in November 2016 as the then-Foreign Secretary, to meet with the Trump transition team. Mr. Modi had travelled to Washington within a few months of Mr. Trump’s first tenure in 2017, and officials didn’t rule out him making another visit to the US in 2025 itself.
However, there was no clarity about whether Mr. Trump would invite Mr. Modi to his inaugural ceremony, although Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt had confirmed earlier this month that invitations had been sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders as “an example of President Trump creating an open dialogue with leaders of countries that are not just [US] allies but adversaries and competitors too.”
When asked about whether Mr. Modi had received an invitation, the MEA spokesperson had said that they had “no updates to share”. “As and when we have something of relevance, some update on it, we surely will bring it to your attention,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on December 13.
This is also Mr. Jaishankar’s first visit to the US since the announcement of the DoJ and Securities and Exchange Commission indictments on Gautam Adani and key Adani group officials. While both governments have brushed off the impact of the case, as well as the indictments against an Indian government official in the Pannun alleged assassination case, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had on December 5 alleged that the US State Department was orchestrating a number of “attacks” against Mr. Adani and others in order to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The US Embassy had said it was “disappointed” by the BJP’s statement.
“I think all we can really say is that this is a regulatory and law enforcement issue that’s best left to the agencies directly involved to speak to, and wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment from either the White House or the State Department,” a senior US official said last week, when asked if the indictments had affected the U.S.-India relationship which the official said was “in a very strong position”.
Published – December 23, 2024 05:43 pm IST
