External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar arrived in New York, early on Friday morning, kick-starting his nine-day visit to the U.S., to address the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and for bilateral and plurilateral meetings in New York and Washington DC. The Minister’s visit comes at the end of a tumultuous week in international relations, with the Indian and Canadian governments engaged in a diplomatic brawl over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June this year.
Early on Friday, Mr. Jaishankar met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the new Japanese Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa, for the Quad ministerial meeting.
“Discussed defending the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific and delivering on Quad commitments,” Mr. Jaishankar wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Always value our collective contribution to doing global good,” he said.
The Minister is due to address the General Assembly on Tuesday — later than has been in recent years. A number of heads of state and government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are not attending this year’s UN ‘High Level Week’.
Mr. Jaishankar is scheduled to attend a special event, ‘India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development’, on Saturday. He will also have discussions with UN Secretary General António Guterres and UNGA President Dennis Francis.
In Washington, Mr. Jaishankar will have bilateral talks with Mr. Blinken, as well as interactions with think tanks and business leaders.
