Talks with Indian officials were “very productive,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a news conference on Nov. 10, as he concluded a nine-day diplomatic tour addressing the Israel–Hamas conflict.
On his third visit to India this year, Mr. Blinken was joined by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh for the annual “2+2” talks between the countries, which center on defense and security cooperation.
“We continue—India and the United States—to deepen our partnership, to deepen our collaboration on everything from emerging technologies to defense to people-to-people ties, as well as our shared diplomacy to try to advance an Indo-Pacific region that’s free, that’s open, that’s prosperous, that’s resilient,” Mr. Blinken said.
“We appreciate the fact that, from day one, India strongly condemned the attacks of Oct. 7,” Mr. Blinken said. “And as our joint statement makes clear, India and the United States stand with Israel against terrorism.”
China and Russia
No other issues were discussed during the news conference, even though Donald Lu, the top U.S. diplomat for South and Central Asia, made clear ahead of Mr. Blinken’s visit that multiple security-related talking points were on the agenda. This was expected given India’s partnership in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, a security alliance initiated in response to China’s growing economic and military assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
The first point of interest that Mr. Lu mentioned was the strained diplomatic relations between India and China following a 2020 incident in which Chinese troops killed 20 Indian soldiers in a long-disputed border area in the Himalayas.
India’s long-standing alliance with Russia—currently India’s primary military supplier—was also on the agenda, he said.
“Our intention is to encourage more collaboration to produce world-class defense equipment to meet Indian defense needs and contribute to greater global security,” Mr. Lu said.
“One of the many discussion points will be our cooperation with India to keep the Indo-Pacific free, open, prosperous, and secure.”
In a statement on the evening of Nov. 9, after his arrival in New Delhi, Mr. Blinken praised India’s leadership of the G20 this year.
“We’re building on a rather remarkable year of engagement,” he said. “We have not only the strongest bilateral partnership we ever had, but also a regional one and, indeed, a global one.”
Cooperating countries include India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, the European Union, and Israel.
Almost four weeks after the IMEC announcement, Hamas launched its brutal Oct. 7 attack on Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people. The ongoing Israeli ground offensive into Gaza has caused internal division among many of its allies, casting a shadow over the future success of the IMEC project.
