S Jaishankar discusses immigration, Afghanistan, terrorism and trade with senior US government officials

NEW DELHI: During his current visit to the US, foreign secretary S Jaishankar discussed immigration,

Afghanistan

, terrorism and trade with senior US government officials, even as the latter expressed a very positive view of India and a keen interest in taking the two countries' relationship forward, agencies reported.

"In a sense, we are (at) the continuity part of this relationship. ..In the meetings with the Secretary of the State (

Rex Tillerson

), with the national security advisor (HR McMaster), we discussed Asia-Pacific, Afghanistan. We discussed the challenge of terrorism," said Jaishankar while addressing the media in Washington DC.

With Tillerson, the foreign secretary discussed the bilateral strategic relationship as well as the situation in Afghanistan and the Asia-Pacific region. Discussions with commerce secretary

Wilbur Ross

were more focused on bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and with Homeland Secretary, to some extent, issues related to immigration and also welfare of the Indians and Indian American community in the US were discussed.

Jaishankar's four-day visit to the US is aimed at sensitising the Donald Trump administration about, among other things, Indian nationals' safety in the US following the recent 'hate crime' killing of an Indian techie in Kansas . A possible cut in H1B and L1 visas was another area of concern addressed.

The India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue, which was started under the previous Obama administration, will be held later this year, Jaishankar added. As well, dates were being worked out for an India visit by secretary of state Tillerson and commerce secretary Ross for the first such dialogue under the Trump administration.

"The (US) Congress has been extraordinarily supportive of the growth of this relationship. Since there has been a change in the political landscape, we thought engaging them was something which was important," Jaishankar said.

"What we heard across the board in the Administration, whether it was business, security, defence cooperation, whether our engagement in the region or working together on international issues, overall a very positive sense of India as a partner," he added.

While responding to a question on new targets and ambitions, Jaishankar said the current US administration looked interested in working with India in a number of areas. The Foreign Secretary also interacted with American business through the US-India Business Council.

"At this time a lot of it was conceptual. On the economic basket, we saw a very strong interest in growing our trade, increase in investment, in finding various ways of cooperating with each other," he said.


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