EAM Jaishankar meets US-India Business Council; briefed on COVID relief, vaccine access

On his first visit to the United States of America (USA) since the Biden administration assumed office, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met with Global Task Force members, US Chamber & Council leadership and the US-India Business Council leadership on Thursday. Jaishankar was briefed on the US-India Business Council's ongoing efforts to assist COVID-19 relief in India, access to vaccine and further ways to build healthcare infrastructure. As per sources, vaccine import remains the top-most priority on the External Affairs Minister's agenda list during his week-long visit where he is set to attend key summits and meetings. 

S Jaishankar arrived in Washington on Wednesday for a series of meetings with senior US officials during which they are expected to review the progress made in bilateral ties in the first 100 days of the Biden administration and lay the groundwork for the future. During his three-day stay in Washington, Jaishankar is scheduled to meet his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, along with other key members of the Biden administration.

"The defence secretary is meeting with the external affairs minister, will continue discussions that the two held in New Delhi in March and will continue the robust bilateral defence and security relationship between our two countries. We are looking forward to having him here at the Pentagon and hosting him for a good set of talks," PTI quoted press secretary John Kirby saying.

"The secretary (of state) looks forward to meeting minister Jaishankar during his visit and discussing a broad range of issues, including COVID-19 relief, efforts to strengthen Indo-Pacific cooperation through the QUAD, enhanced UN and multilateral cooperation, and a range of other shared regional security and economic priorities," a State Department spokesperson said earlier this week.

Procurement of coronavirus vaccines and raw materials to boost domestic production is expected to be a major focus area of Jaishankar's talks in Washington. Jaishankar is likely to press for further speeding up of the supply of raw materials from the US to boost vaccine production in India, which is currently reeling under the second wave of COVID-19 infections.

'Global cooperation the way to go': Jaishankar

Union External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Wednesday addressed an event- 'India: Opportunities And Challenges For A Strategic Partnership' at Hoover Institution in New York. During his conversation with former United States Security Advisor (NSA) General HR McMaster, Dr S Jaishankar said that the second wave of the viral disease proved to be devastating in India due to which cases and deaths were much greater than before.

While stating that India has seen a tremendous outpouring of support and solidarity as it fights against the second wave of COVID-19, Jaishankar said that global cooperation and mitigation is the only way out of a global problem like COVID-19. "When you have a global problem of this scale the only way out is global cooperation and global mitigation. I am glad to say we have seen a tremendous outpouring of support and solidarity at this time," he added. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Dr S Jaishankar had met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York. Taking to his official Twitter handle, S Jaishankar informed that he and Guterres discussed the COVID-19 challenge and also underlined the importance of finding urgent and effective COVID vaccine solution. He also informed that ways to ramp up the vaccine supply chain were also discussed to ensure greater production and fairer distribution. 

(With PTI Inputs)