India and US Hold High-Level Talks on West Asia, Counterterrorism, and Trade

India and the US held high-level talks on Sunday. Discussions covered the West Asia crisis, counterterrorism, and trade. India raised concerns about US visa difficulties for Indian travelers. The US assured that immigration measures are global and not targeted at India. Both nations are working towards a new trade agreement and cooperation on global challenges.

New Delhi: India and the US discussed bilateral and regional issues, including the ongoing West Asia crisis, as their foreign ministers met here on Sunday.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar and US secretary of state Marco Rubio also focused on counterterrorism cooperation and the future of multilateral diplomacy during their delegation-level talks. The US sought to reassure India amid the latest concerns over trade disputes and Washington's renewed ties with Islamabad under the Trump administration.

Also read: India, US signal thaw as Jaishankar and Rubio hold candid talks to re-energise relations

Addressing a joint press meet, Jaishankar said that during talks he flagged concerns over difficulties faced by genuine Indian travellers in obtaining US visas. The minister said New Delhi expects legal travel to the US to remain unaffected while both countries cooperate on tackling illegal immigration.

"While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility would not be adversely impacted as a consequence. After all, this is very relevant to our business, technology and research cooperation," said Jaishankar. On recent changes in US visa categories such as J1, F1 and H1B, Rubio said the immigration measures are not specifically aimed at India.

"It is not a system that is targeted at India; it is one that's being applied globally," he said. "We've had a migratory crisis in the United States," said Rubio. "This is not because of India, but broadly, we have had over 20 million people illegally enter the United States over the last few years, and we've had to address that challenge."

"The US-India relationship has not lost momentum," said Rubio. "We are on the verge," he said, "of making tremendous progress" towards a new bilateral trade agreement.

He also underlined that "terrorism is one of the great challenges of the 21st century and we are strategically aligned on that topic."

On India-US global partnership, Rubio said, "Our standpoint is not limited to a regional one. We have a lot of alignment, whether it is our mutual interest in what is happening currently in the Strait of Hormuz and beyond."

He signalled a possible breakthrough in efforts to reopen Hormuz, saying "significant progress" had been made over the past 48 hours and that the world could receive "good news" within the next few hours.

Also read: Zero tolerance for terror, de-risking global economy: Jaishankar lists India-US common ground as US marks 250 years of independence

Jaishankar referred to India's policy of "multi-alignment". "India is one of the very few countries that has strong relations with the United States, Israel and Iran," he said. "We do not look at it as a zero-sum game."

"The question is how you manage them all," he said, referring to India's ties with Russia, Europe, Ukraine, and the US. Energy cooperation also figured in the talks. "We spent some time today discussing energy issues, and again, you're all aware that our government's fundamental responsibility is to address the needs of 1.4 billion people," said Jaishankar. When asked about racism faced by Indians, Rubio said, "Every country in the world has stupid people. I'm sure there are stupid people here; there are stupid people in the United States who make dumb comments all the time."