External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday, February 24, mentioned that India-US relationship strengthened during Donald Trump’s term as US president, during ‘Conflict, Contest, Cooperate, Create’ session at the 9th Raisina Dialogue in Delhi.
Despite there being issues, the External affairs minister claimed that India-US relationship furthered during Donald Trump’s presidency . At the session in Delhi, S Jaishankar said, “Trump was president from 2017 to 2021. We had a very good relationship with him. He came here on a visit, my prime minister went there for visits. Like any relationship, there were issues but overall if I look, in those four years did our relationship deepen? Did it grow? Absolutely, it did,” reported HT.
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Ahead of the upcoming 2024 US presidential elections, Trump is campaigning in the US and won the South Carolina Republican primary on February 24 even while being involved in cases pertaining to federal charges. The former US President had visited India in 2020 and addressed a rally with PM Modi in Gujarat’s Motera, where he had said , “We will always remember this remarkable hospitality. We will remember it forever.”
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S Jaishankar further claimed that India’s ties have improved with each successive presidency after Bill Clinton. He attributed clever diplomacy to the reason behind blooming relationship between India and US and remarked, “It’s not just Trump, if you look at India-US from perhaps Bill Clinton, with every presidency, the relationship has deepened. You could attribute it to structural advantages or you could attribute it to clever diplomacy. It has grown and I have every confidence that it will continue to do so,” reported HT.
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S Jaishankar also mentioned the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK that were first initiated in January 2022. The 14th round of FTA talks commenced last month that covered 26 chapters encompassing goods, services, investments, and intellectual property rights.
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Over FTA issue S Jaishankar stressed that FTA is way to facilitate economic production and consumption and said, “Both countries would stand enormously to benefit. Today, how different economic production and consumption centres deal with each other is a very major point and to an extent we can facilitate it. FTA is one way of facilitating it, connectivity is another way of facilitating it, and digital flows are a third way of facilitating it. “
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He added, “The reason we are engaged in this exercise is precisely because both of us see a lot coming out positively from that FTA,” reported HT.
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Published: 25 Feb 2024, 12:10 PM IST