Jaishankar to meet Blinken today

The meeting comes amid a complicated situation, to some extent, post US State Dept Spokesperson Ned Price saying earlier in the day that both Pakistan and India were United States' partners with 'different points of emphasis'.

New Delhi:External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is all set to meet the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Tuesday. The meeting comes against the backdrop of India expressing concern over the F-16 deal between the US and Pakistan. Upon completion of his visit to New York for the UNGA session, the top Indian diplomat reached Washington and was accorded a warm welcome by Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin.

Both the leaders noted that Defence and Security cooperation is a key pillar of the contemporary India-US partnership and emphasized the steady progress in policy exchange, interoperability, defense trade, service exercises, and military-industrial cooperation. Referring to the argument made by the US that the F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism, Jaishankar had said publicly that 'everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used.'

"You're not fooling anybody by saying these things," Jaishankar had also said. Clarifying its position, the US state department spokesperson Ned Price has said "we don’t view our relationship with Pakistan, and our relationship with India as in relation with one another.

These are both partners of ours with different points of emphasis in each, and we look to both as partners because we do have in many cases shared values, we do have in many cases shared interests".

The India-US relations have many convergences in terms of Indo-Pacific, defense relationship, the common challenge, and worry over China. Energy cooperation has also gained momentum between the two countries. India and US are both part of the Quad grouping as well as the I2U2 which also includes the UAE and Israel. While there are several convergences between the two nations, it looks like there are minor irritants between the two as well.