As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is about to arrive in New Delhi to attend the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ conclave, Washington has said India is a global strategic partner of the US which has a wide, broad, deep relationship with the country. The US also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that “today’s era is not of war” and said Russia is challenging rules based order in obvious reference to the Ukraine conflict.
This reiteration came a day before Blinken and several other foreign ministers including from Russia, China and Australia besides others will participate in the two-day G-20 conclave beginning Wednesday. Blinken will also take part in the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on March 3 hosted by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar besides holding bilateral talks with him.
"India is a global strategic partner of ours. We have a wide, broad, deep relationship with India. There will be a lot on the agenda in the bilateral relationship and in the multilateral engagements he takes part in on the margins of the G20," Ned Price, State Department Spokesperson, told reporters at his daily news conference late Monday in Washington.
"We share a vision with India of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and India is a key partner of ours bilaterally, in the context of the Quad as well as other international groupings, even as we've attempted to stitch together some of the partnerships in which India has been a key player,” he said.
Quad is comprised of Japan, India, Australia and the United States. The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.
"We've spoken quite a bit recently of I2U2, a new partnership that involves India, it involves the UAE, it involves the United States as well. So, there are a number of elements on the agenda, and you'll have an opportunity to hear from the Secretary as he travels there," Price said.