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China-India relations
ChinaDiplomacy

With eye on Beijing, India and US make a show of unity amid fissures

  • US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar affirm cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
  • The joint appearance comes a day after Jaishankar criticised the US for its package to upgrade Pakistan’s F-16 fighter jet fleet

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) listens as Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar addresses a joint news conference at the State Department in Washington on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters
Khushboo Razdan

A day after fissures reappeared in US-India ties, top diplomats from both countries struck a cordial tone on Tuesday in a show of unity with an eye on China – a common challenge and competitor in the Indo-Pacific.

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On Monday, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar had sharp words for US President Joe Biden’s approval earlier this month of a US$450 million package to maintain and upgrade the F-16 fighter jet fleet of Pakistan, India’s rival. The US argues that the F-16 fleet is important to counter terrorism.

Jaishankar said he had noted a “global anxiety” over the “prospect of instability” in the Indo-Pacific during discussions with other diplomats at last week’s UN General Assembly. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
Jaishankar said he had noted a “global anxiety” over the “prospect of instability” in the Indo-Pacific during discussions with other diplomats at last week’s UN General Assembly. Photo: ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
India – a key partner in the US security strategy for the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s growing muscle – opposed the move, contending that Pakistan harbours and exports terrorists. On Monday, Jaishankar said the US was “not fooling anyone” when it said the fighters would be used for counterterrorism “because we all know where they are deployed”.

But on Tuesday Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a joint news conference in Washington focused on strengthening bilateral cooperation, with Jaishankar noting a sense of “global anxiety” over the “prospect of instability” in the Indo-Pacific while answering a question about Taiwan.

Jaishankar stressed that the region was “central to global trade” and that concerns were “very widely prevalent” during his discussions with dozens of envoys and ministers during the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week.

Expressing a “keen interest to move forward on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework”, a loose grouping of 13 countries from South and Southeast Asian countries led by the US to counter China’s dominance in international trade, Jaishankar said that “India and the US share a strong interest in encouraging more resilient and reliable supply chains”.

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