EAM Jaishankar meets US Treasury Secretary Bessent; discusses economic partnership, strategic cooperation
“I was pleased to meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington DC today. We had a useful discussion on advancing India-US economic partnership and strategic cooperation,” Jaishankar said in an X post on Tuesday.
In a post, Bessent said he enjoyed his meeting with Jaishankar. “During our talks, we discussed the importance of securing supply chains, as well as other national and economic security issues of mutual interest,” he said.
Jaishankar will visit the USA from February 2-4 and attend the Critical Minerals Ministerial meeting organized by the External Affairs Minister Marco Rubio on Wednesday.
Jaishankar also held bilateral talks with Rubio at the Ministry of External Affairs, where the duo “welcomed” the trade deal reached between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and also discussed “formalizing” bilateral cooperation on critical mineral exploration and mining.
Also read: India US trade deal: EAM Jaishankar, Marco Rubio welcome new deal; discuss energy, nuclear, defense and critical minerals
Jaishankar’s meeting with both Bessent and Rubio came a day after Trump announced on Truth Social that India and the US had agreed to a trade deal under which Washington would reduce reciprocal tariffs on New Delhi from 25 percent to 18 percent. Bessent had criticized India’s purchase of Russian oil. Last week, he called the Europeans “very disappointing” after the free trade agreement between India and the European Union and said that they did not want to join Washington in imposing tariffs on New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil because of this trade agreement.
“The United States imposed a 25 percent tariff or sanctions on India for buying Russian oil. The Europeans were reluctant to join us, and it came about because they wanted to do this trade deal. So whenever you hear a European talk about the importance of the Ukrainian people, remember that they put trade before the Ukrainian people. Trade – European trade – is more important than ending the war in Ukraine,” Bessent had said.
