India and the U.S. discussed a broad range of issues — from the COVID-19 response, supply chains, climate action to global and regional issues, but Russia’s war on Ukraine and its ramifications for the world appeared to have been the major theme for the day.
“Obviously, a good part of my meeting with Secretary Blinken [U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken] in the morning went to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine that has many ramifications,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said at the joint press conference of Defence and Foreign Ministers at the State Department on Monday afternoon.
Mr. Blinken said that it was important that all countries, “especially those with leverage, to press [ Russian President Vladimir] Putin to end the war”. He called on democracies to “stand together” and speak “with one voice” to defend their shared values. Mr. Blinken said these values “ need to apply everywhere “ — a suggestion that they did not only apply to the Indo-Pacific, where India has faced an aggressive China on its borders, but to the Russia-Ukraine situation.
