EAM Jaishankar kicking off 6-day visit to US from today

New Delhi, Dec 23: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will pay a six-day visit to the US from Tuesday, in the first high-level trip from India after Donald Trump won the US presidential election.

An official readout said Jaishankar will meet his counterparts to discuss key bilateral, regional and global issues.

“External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit the United States of America from December 24-29,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a brief statement.

It said Jaishankar will also chair a conference of the Consul Generals of India in the US.

Jaishankar will hold talks with his American counterpart Antony Blinken and other officials in what is likely to be the last engagement between New Delhi and the outgoing Biden administration.

It is not immediately known whether the external affairs minister will meet any official in the Trump camp.

The Republican leader will take charge as the US president for the second term on January 20. On December 5, Jaishankar said at an event in Delhi that Trump has had a positive political view of India and it is in a much more advantageous position than many other countries to build “deeper” relations with his administration.

At the same time, Jaishankar noted that like many other countries, India may also have some issues and it will deal with them.

The India-US relations witnessed a major upswing during Trump’s first term as the US president from 2017 to 2021.

The relations between the two countries expanded further under the Biden administration in diverse fields including in high-technology and defence.

One of the most significant steps initiated to expand bilateral cooperation was the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology or iCET.

The iCET was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden in May 2022 with an aim to forge greater collaboration between India and the US in areas of critical technologies.

The defence cooperation also saw major expansion.

In October, India inked a mega deal with the US to procure 31 Predator long-endurance drones from American defence major General Atomics under the foreign military sales route at a cost of nearly USD 4 billion.

India is procuring the drones to boost its military’s combat prowess along the contested borders with China. While the Navy will get 15 Sea Guardian drones, the Indian Air Force and the Army will each get eight Sky Guardian drones.

The high-altitude long-endurance drones are capable of remaining airborne for over 35 hours and can carry four Hellfire missiles and around 450 kgs of bombs.

The Sea Guardian drones are being procured as they can carry out a variety of roles including maritime surveillance, anti-submarine warfare and over-the-horizon targeting among others.